Close Encounters of the First Kind: The Early Years

I’ve always wanted to know what Close Encounters of the (such and such) Kind meant and decided to spend a little time researching some of the reported experiences that have dealt with such a phenomenon. For starters, Close Encounters of the First Kind (as defined by J. Allen Hynek) is a UFO report that has occurred when the subject in questions has been spotted a maximum of 500 feet from the witness. In this article, we will take a look at some of the significant accounts that involve a sighting of this sort, starting with 593 BC.

 

Throughout history, modern times were not the only people to catch sight of an unidentified flying object. Over time, numerous records involving information and details that point in the direction of a UFO sighting have surfaced, leading enthusiasts to believe that life other than what has been seen on Earth really does exists. Many skeptics exist, who do not believe in such things, but then again, despite repeated evidence regarding the existence of dinosaurs, there are still some people who cannot grasp that creatures that large ever walked the planet.

 

Starting with 593 BC, some feel that an encounter involving Ezekiel is a disputable account involving a UFO. Anyone from the former chief of the systems layout branch of NASA to the common housewife dismissed a Biblical reference to UFOs, although some skeptics that analyzed the evidence felt that the vehicle described throughout the pages of the Bible was actually that of a UFO.

 

In 329 BC, during the reign of Alexander the Great, a historian stated that two odd crafts seemed to come at his army from the sky. It is said that the “war elephants, men and all the horses” felt fear and dared not cross the river where the incident was said to take place. Additional details pertaining to this alleged sighting includes statements, such as the objects possessed ” great shining silvery shields, spitting fire around the rims… things that came from the skies and returned to the skies.”

 

Another army recorded a similar incident in Kyoto, Japan that took place during 1235, where a platoon viewed an unusual display of lights that illuminated the sky above for a couple of hours. In 1271, Japan was once again the site where another unidentified object appeared in the sky. This time, it involved a Buddhist priest, who was supposedly said to become a victim of a beheading. Suddenly, a strange object appeared in the sky and the beheading was said dismissed.

 

In Part 2 of the Close Encounters of the First Kind article, we will touch upon some of the interesting accounts that deal with the likes of Christopher Columbus as he rushed to discover the New World, as well as documentation that was made into the 1800s.