My mom used to tell us this story about our close encounter of the third kind. In the early days, our old house in Sampaloc had this very large opening next to her room's bathroom. Like a sundeck on a densely packed neighborhood, it lead to the neighbors' rusty rooftops, where toddler steps like mine made creaky, clattery sounds which threw the back-door neighbors in a fit of rage. Long before they decreed to put up a concrete wall to block our exit for good, the window was left open at the middle of the night. There, my dad would let me sit by the windowsill as we made animal figures out of stars and planets in the sky. Mom would sometimes join us in between her grinding house chores or test paper checking breaks, thus completing a picture-perfect portrait of a family peeking out from a wide opening to try and figure things out in the dark.
One night, I remember being slightly interrupted from my sleep after dad insisted on seeing a strange object hovering high above our house. Carrying me on his shoulders, we raced towards the sundeck window where my mom was already peeking outside to catch a glimpse of the flying disk. Mother would later claim every time the subject is brought up that what we saw was a metallic orange ball of light and that there were other witnesses across the city, and that the appearance of the strange flying object even made headlines in the news the following day. Mom would even tell us that she discouraged my dad from opening the window too wide out of fear that we might get abducted. These crystalline details were lost to me now. What I can vaguely recall was seeing a bright orange object.
Nothing more, nothing less.
However, when I hear stories about strange orbs creating light shows or woozy movements in the sky, or whimsy unidentified flying things being reported chasing earthbound aircraft only to outrun it at lightning speeds, I recall that time when we had an encounter of our own. A decade after bearing witness to that shiny metallic object hovering high above our sun deck window, a UFO craze descended upon the mainstream media. It coincided with the coming "Rapture" where, according to its promoters, every chosen soul will be abducted and placed on one of the huge evacuation starships in orbit around Earth. They were even building a secret base somewhere at the foothills of Mount Banahaw to prepare for such interstellar humanitarian effort.
At the height of the media frenzy, I was going gaga over these things, believing I could be one of the chosen ones as told by the "contactees" being interviewed on television. Dad did not discourage me from my delusions, and instead fueled it by giving me this dossier full of press releases about the UFOs and their respective space commanders. For quite some time, I tried to "telepathically" make contact with these visitors hoping they would give me a hint of their presence. The only thing I saw during the entire madness was a runaway balloon fleeing to the sky from a children's birthday party somewhere in the neighborhood.
The sensation eventually fizzled out a few months later and the hyped "Rapture" disappointed everyone, including me. One of the "contactees" ended up being a sideshow publicist of the late "Da King" during a national elections another decade later, while the lead spokesperson for the visitors now fashion herself as a modern age
Babaylan and established a cult somewhere in Mindanao a few years ago. Such were the fate of those who decieved an entire nation and made their believers think that their homeland was the "New Jerusalem" of the coming millenium.
While many have forgotten about this "grand" scheme envisioned by those visitors from the sky, it left me searching for answers. I sought the wisdom of Carl Sagan by reading his books Cosmos and Contact; opened my mind to the possibility of our first civilizations and early histories being tampered by extraterrestials according to Erich von Daniken; and scoured countless astronomy books in our school's library and in the bookstores for any real proof that life could exist in another planet.
But like the constant cycles of the moon, time changes everything and eventually, I gave up my childish wonders in exchange for something more real. Gone are the days when I would think about ways of sending humans to planet Mars and instead, just focus my attention on some pressing matters like where to get the money to pay for my credit card bills next month.
On some restless nights however, my inner geek suddenly escapes and leaves an ion trail across the four corners of my room. In need for means to get distracted, I would watch episode reruns of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 to feel the good old days again. Sometimes I would find myself browsing the internet reading spoilers of my favorite space-themed movies or articles about close encounters in wikipedia. When in need to kill time, I would still recreate interstellar empires on the computer and let myself enter another reality by engaging alien civilizations in diplomacy, trade or warfare instead of pursuing my other sensual needs.
Things would have been easier if I never keep this lingering question whether are we alone in the universe or not. I do not know how it got into my thoughts, but I suspect that my earliest exposure to outerworld speculations remain the biggest culprit. Carl Sagan, until his death, only had assumptions as to why the existence of other beings were possible, while Von Daniken was refuted and declared fraud many years after his most popular books were published. The International Astronomical Union continues to catalogue planets outside the solar system, as SETI remains listening for any radio signals being transmitted from outer space.
The answer remains elusive and time is running out. The more I grow older and gain more scars in life, the less I think of things
like UFOs
and life in another planet
and human-like silhouettes appearing and disappearing in your peripheral vision. (which I know, deserves an entry of its own.)
But life would never get its spice if every mysteries that abound have already been resolved. There will always be subjects we would question and some series of events that we would ponder and yet, never understand at all. Much as I would like to put some sense to the things my eyes have seen, there are times that it is easier to accept them as they are, rather than complicate everything with reason and logic.
"Swimming ng Encantadia noong isang gabi sa Pansol Laguna. Katatapos lang namin maghapunan at nabusog ako sa hipon na luto ni Darwin at adobong manok at lumpiang ubod na dala ni Bloiggster. Nagyoyosi ako sa labas ng aming kuwarto nang mapansin ko ang tatlong pulang ilaw sa kalangitan. Noong una ay akala ko na mga antenna ito ng isang cell site. Subalit sa aking pagmamasid habang patuloy ang paghithit-buga ng sigarilyo, ang mga pulang tuldok ay kapansin-pansin na mabagal na gumagalaw sa kalangitan. Tila ba ito'y may patutunguhang direksyon at hindi lamang mga ilaw sa mga cellsite gaya ng una kong akala.
Marahan ang paglalayag ng mga ilaw patungo sa bundok Makiling. Gusto ko sanang tawagin ang mga kasama ko subalit pinili kong mapag-isa habang pinoproseso sa utak ang aking nakikita. Bukod rito'y maaring hindi rin nila paniwalaan ang aking mga hinala. Una ay walang sasakyang panghimpapawid ang mangangahas lumipad ng alas-diyes ng gabi, maliban na lamang kung ito'y isang pampasaherong eroplanong patungo sa ibang bayan. Ikalawa ay tatlong ilaw na malayo ang agwat sa bawat isa ang nagpruprusisyon sa itaas kaya't hindi ito matuturing na isang eroplano lamang. Panghuli, ang pagsuong patungo sa bundok ay isang napaka-peligrosong paglalakbay. Isang hibang na piloto ang gagawa nito lalo na't kung para sa adventure lamang ang kanyang pakay.
Nawala rin ang mga ilaw matapos ang ilang minuto. Marahil ay nilamon na rin sila ng mga ulap gaya ng bundok na kanilang daraanan. Marami ang naglaro sa aking isipan matapos ang kanilang mabagal na pagguhit sa langit. Naroon ang ala-ala ng aking first encounter kasama ang aking pamilya na aming natanaw sa likod bintana at pati na rin ang agam-agam na pugad daw ng kababalaghan ang mga bundok sa paligid ng Makiling. Dumating ang umaga na pilit ko pa ring iwinawaksi sa diwa ang aking mga nakita kinagabihan.
Subalit gaya ng mga ibang kababalaghan na naranasan ko na noon, mahirap kalimutan ang isang bagay na alam mong bumaon na sa iyong alaala."
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The term foo fighter was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various UFOs or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over both the European and Pacific Theater of Operations. - Wikipedia, Foo Fighter
