UFO conference under way this weekend
COLUMBIA — Daniel Mitchell said he was outside Porterville, Calif., in 2002 when he saw it: a boomerang-shaped UFO longer than three football fields, gliding silently just over the treetops. He said he felt like he'd been kicked in the gut.
“You can’t explain the trauma, the impact,” Mitchell said of such an experience. "My knees were shaking. Suddenly your ego is in question. Are they going to do anything to me?” But it just flew away, he said.
Mitchell, who is from Springfield, is among about 100 participants registered for the Midwest UFO Conference being held Saturday and Sunday at the Days Inn Conference Center at 1900 I-70 Drive S.W. The event is sponsored by several UFO interest groups. Speakers include investigators who have looked into alleged UFO sightings, cattle mutilations and the 1947 UFO crash near Roswell, N.M.
The keynote speaker scheduled for Saturday evening is Travis Walton, a nationally known lecturer who was slated to discuss his account of being abducted by aliens in 1975. His story was later dramatized in the 1993 movie “Fire in the Sky."
Margie Kay, a conference organizer from Kansas City, said some people at the event are merely curious; others have personal stories of unnerving UFO scenes.
Of the latter, she said, “They’re looking for answers, but many keep quiet about what happened to themselves.”
Others attending are very open about their experiences, including the conference speakers. What attendees have in common, Kay said, is a desire to know “what’s going on, who’s doing it and why.”
“I’d like to have some answers,” said Barb Becker of Columbia, member of the Missouri Investigators Group, a conference sponsor.
She talked about following up on reports of triangle-shaped UFO sightings in Columbia in late 1999. She said she spoke to witnesses who saw UFOs on U.S. 63 near Highway AC. Another was seen on St. Charles Road, and a third on Locust Street, she said.
Richard Hayde directs the Kansas City section of the Mutual UFO Network, another conference sponsor.
“Investigation is at the heart of it,” Hayde said of the group’s mission. Accuracy and the scientific method are crucial, he said.
Ridicule and disinformation are hindering serious UFO study, said Bill Wickersham, professor of peace studies at MU. He criticized the media for advancing “the giggle factor,” meaning snickering at talk of UFOs.
In light of thousands of sightings worldwide, with witnesses including top-level scientists and military officers, he said, “Either we have mass hysteria or a real, live phenomenon.”
“This is a very serious human issue that deserves full attention by all citizens and especially members of the academic community,” Wickersham added. “If it’s nonsense, let’s prove it, but at least read the data.”
Mitchell’s sighting in California is one of those thousands. He is not a conference speaker, and said he’s not seeking attention.
“I served in the military," he said. "I went to college. I stand by what I saw."
Of fellow participants, he said: “We’re not weird. We’re just people. We come here to pinch each other, and say, 'Yeah, it’s real.'"
Visit the Vox website for a related story about the conference.