Seeing is believing

“Stora boken om naturfenomen” is a Swedish book by Clas Svahn, the former president of UFO-Sverige, one of the more skeptical UFO-logy groups. Svahn is currently a reporter working for Swedish daily paper Dagens Nyheter. After skimming this book, you might actually stop believing in UFOs, fairies and other supernatural phenomena. And then, maybe not…

Noctilucent clouds, haloes around the sun, rainbows caused by moon light, city lights reflected in the sky, enormous human shadows seen in the clouds, UFO-shaped clouds, St Elmo´s Fire…Svahn doesn´t even have to mention Venus or the inevitable barn owls to make the reader think twice about whether ETs from Roswell really dunnit. A gigantic jellyfish-like UFO captured on photo in 1974 turns out to be a vapor cloud. And so on!

Meanwhile, firmly on the ground, are all kinds of “fairy rings”, perfectly circular holes in the ice, or seemingly artificial structures made of snow, which all have a natural explanation. So do (we hope!) the bizarre sailing stones at Racetrack Playa in Death Valley.

What made me think twice about the debunking was the chapter on ball lightning. People see the fiery orbs all the time, some are even killed by them. Yet, scientists to a large extent *still deny that ball lightning is a real thing* cuz “impossible according to the laws of nature” or something. Svahn interviews a scientist who frankly tells him that nobody wants to research the phenomenon, since it seems implausible and you can´t base a scientific career on chasing something that might not even be real!

WTF???!!!

This reminds me of an unrelated topic I commented on previously: the recent discovery that lichens (which have been meticulously studied for generations) are *triple* organisms, not just double ditto. Funny how everyone can miss such a salient fact about an organism scientists are actually researching. Now imagine what they could possibly miss *if they aren´t even looking*.

“Stora boken om naturfenomen” is fascinating, but ironically, it made me even more sure that all kinds of really weird shit, some of it paranormal, still awaits to be discovered. Or rather awaits being acknowledged by the gate-keepers. Perhaps ball-lightning at the next CSICOP conference might do the trick? :D