From the Earth, to the Moon and beyond, people have been documenting and reporting strange sightings and unexplained phenomenon for centuries. It is only in the last half century or so that the UFO craze has really gripped us. From mysterious lights in the sky and crop circles, to the Loch Ness monster and Sasquatch, to the “Eye of God” the list of strange sightings is a long one. Let’s explore some of these.

Many have witnessed the lake monster from Loch Ness in the Scotland Highlands, though few were actually spry enough to get the elusive beast on film. And what film and picture evidence there is lacking to say the least. Descriptions of “Nessy” vary from person to person, and are hazy at best. This creature’s popularity has waxed and waned over the years since first brought into the public eye back in 1933. Cryptozoologists really have their work cut out for them with this one.

Sasquatch has a number of names; Big Foot, Abominable Snowman and Yeti are a few of the more notable. Sasquatch, or Big Foot, is a large ape-like creature that inhabits the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada. A famous somewhat grainy film has placed the image of what Big Foot looks like into the minds of many people. Accounts and eye-witness reports, along with strange foot prints and other findings make this creature almost seem plausible. Its cousin the Abominable snowman, or Yeti, inhabits the Himalayan region of Tibet and Nepal. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury tells of his experience with the Yeti in his book Mount Everest The Reconnaissance, 1921. He found tracks in the snow that he took to be those of a loping wolf, creating the elongated double-footprint. The Sherpa guide mentioned the “man-bear,” and the legend soon spread.

The “Eye of God” is gaining in popularity as the proof of the existence of God in the universe. The Helix Nebula bears a striking resemblance to the structure of an eye. Although scientists can explain its appearance, images of the Helix Nebula have struck a chord in the human imagination and have made people start to question their beliefs.

There have also been accounts of a secret Alien base on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were said to have witnessed it first-hand. In fact, the Apollo mission and any subsequent Missions to the Moon are believed to have been cancelled to do the Alien presence. Crop circles and crash reports, stories of abduction and visitation are perhaps the most famous and numerous of the strange sightings. From flying saucers, discs and cigar-shaped objects to pilots reporting close encounters with spacecraft, we get the sense that we are not alone in the universe. Jimmy Carter was known as the “UFO President due to his fascination with them and as a result of a sighting he and a few others witnessed.

Perhaps we will one day uncover the truth behind these strange sightings. Or perhaps it’s true that we would rather leave the mysteries alone so that we can happily imagine the possibilities.

Do UFOs, haunted houses and Count Dracula interest you? If yes, then this article is for you. Interest in the paranormal has grown substantially throughout the years. Some attribute it to media, while others were drawn in because of their love for the eerie and the unknown. Whatever the reason is, this interest in the paranormal has paved the way for other industries to join in the bandwagon. One such industry is the travel industry. Tours around places of renowned paranormal activities are now being offered. These tours are called paranormal tours and are organized by different tour companies and paranormal-loving organizations and groups. Even if they are relatively new, these tours have been selling like hotcakes and are continuing to be one of the most popular tours around.

Whether you are a traveller or just a skeptic, there are several types of paranormal tours for you. Some of these include UFO sightings tours, haunted houses and castles visits, and even night walks around graveyards and haunted villages. These tours provide the excitement expected from places with paranormal activities and cure the traveller’s bug at the same time. However, no matter how popular they are, some people (especially the die-hard paranormal fanatics) are criticizing these paranormal tours. Some are saying these tours are just pure hype, further adding that they are only money making tactics of tour operators. Others claim that these tours do not let travellers experience real paranormal activities, saying that if people want a real paranormal tour, they must join real paranormal investigators and not some kind of commercial tour.

No matter how many critics paranormal tours have, we cannot deny its popularity. Try searching the Internet and out will pop several websites and tour operators offering almost sold-out tours to paranormal-seeking travellers. UFO related places such as Roswell and the crop circle sites are some of the popular destinations for paranormal tourists. Aside from these, haunted houses such as Amityville and haunted castles such as those of England and Ireland are also on top of the list. The hometown of Dracula, Romania, is also one of the most visited among these tourist sites. If paranormal-seeking travellers want a more firsthand experience, haunted hotels all over the world offer overnight packaged tours. Since these places possess the mystery and air of creepiness that are good formula for a paranormal tourist spot, tours to the places mentioned above are selling well.

People are always seeking for new things to do and new places to explore. Since the needs and demand of the travellers are constantly changing, the travel industry, as a result, is always evolving. Starting from simple tours, tour offers went to adventure and eco-tours and now to paranormal tours. What is popular now may or may not be popular tomorrow. A few years from now, a new set of tours will be introduced and will have its own followers. However, as long as people have a knack for the paranormal, paranormal tours will be here to stay.

It is for sure that as of know, the UFO theory will keep us engaged for a good period of time. They exist or they don’t. This question is not as simple as it seems. With people’s view differing all around the world, the scientists are still looking for some solid or hard proof.

As far as UFO legend and myth stories go, here is one of the most intriguing stories that come from a daughter of a well known minister in the United States. This story was shared by Lucile Andrew, daughter of Hamilton Holt.

Before sharing this so called “secret” she said “today I want to share an experience that has been by, by request kept secret in our family since 1939, during Second World War. This concerns something my father was shown by Cordell Hull, his cousin and also the Secretary of the State under the president Franklin Roosevelt”.

Lucie told that during that year her father went to Washington and was with Cordell. Their Cordell took Hull to the U.S Capitol and asked Hull to accompany him in a secret room. According to Holt, this room was in the basement of U.S Capitol. Holt was shocked what he saw their, he saw four large jars, each with an alien creature persevered within. He also saw a flying saucer in the room not kept far away from the jars.

According to Lucie, she and her two sisters were all made aware of this event. They were instructed not to leak this information until Cordell and Holt are dead. The sisters still believe that the U.S government still has possession of those UFO’s and alien bodies and they are kept at some secret locations.

Hull was a very well known statesmen have no reason to hoax such an event.

Lucile were very young at that time, to understand what her father was trying to say, but her elder sister still recalls that her father described the entities in the glass jars as some creatures who in no way looked like human beings.

The sisters also recall that their father went to the secret room in 1939 and saw an UFO; he naturally assumed that the four creatures arrived in that UFO. He described the UFO as, broken into pieces and was of silver metallic color. It was nothing he had ever seen before.

However contradictory to all these, curator of the U.S capitol denies existence of any kind of basement in the building. However she still recalls that during that time there was a basement divided into storage rooms.

The Cordell-Holt story, though enticing, will exist within the realm of folklore.

This case which is commonly referred to as the Antonoi Urzi case is one of the most researched and popular cases of UFO sightings. Antonio lives in Milano, Italy. He along with his girlfriend Simona has documented and recorded a large number of UFO sightings and other anomalous phenomenon. The videos and photographs filmed by them are very clear and are of very high quality. These have been carefully analyzed by Mexico’s expert journalist and photographer Jaime Maussan and his expert studio crew. The fact threat Antonoi Urzi is in constant contact with these UFO’s and knows when exactly to film them is one of the most astounding parts of this famous case.

Some of the pictures of the UFO hovering in the sky were clicked by the couple on 5th April 2009. But it is very strange that the very next day Italy had one of its major natural disasters, an earthquake measuring 6.3 on Richter scale. With some 260 people dead and around 18000 rendered homeless due to the earthquake. The authority as well as the people wondered if this earthquake has something to do with the UFO sightings that occurred a day before the earthquake came.

Here is another UFO sighting event that occurred in Rathdrum, Idaho, United States. An anonymous person was sitting in the lawn near his house and looking towards the sky, he then saw a bright cigar shaped object in the sky do some extremely right and left movements in the air and slowly descending towards the ground. The object was changing color form glittering silver to gold. The UFO started getting brighter and brighter. The object then reached the ground and kept still for 2-3 minutes. The object then grew dimmer. Then it again ascended in sky and flew at a very high speed towards the north-west direction.

The witnessed was amazed and speechless after what he saw. He just went home and sat alone recalling the event that he had just experienced. He noted what he had experienced and then mailed it to a UFO research society, which carried out further analysis of the report.

According to him “I live in a small town where there are absolutely no planes, not even small ones. My father served navy for a good 30 years time period. I have seen a lot of different crafts, but nothing like this ever before. I can say with surety that, that flying object was indeed an UFO.”

On the night of 12th august 1953 a woman living in the Ground Observer Corps in Black Hills, situated in South Dakota reported flashing lights hovering in the sky. The two operators posted at the radar station went to check the lights, whereas the women continued to talk over the phone. While all of them looked with amazement towards the sky the women reported that the object is beginning to move towards the Rapid City. At the same time, the two radar men observed that the object is moving; they rushed back to the radar and found that the radar got a fix on it on that spot.

At the same time, an F-84 plane was asked to reach the desired site. The pilot saw the flashing lights from a distance and started moving towards it. The object headed north direction and the jet continued its pursuit, the radar people watched the pursuit on their radar scope. The UFO gained the speed whenever the jet tried to come near it. After covering over 100 miles the jet ran out of fuel and had to discontinue the pursuit of the UFO. After the first jet returned another was asked to continue the pursuit of the UFO. The jet then reached the same position where the pursuit was discontinued and to their surprise the pilots found the UFO on the same location where the pursuit was discontinued. The pursuit again continued and the pursuit was observed on the ground radar.

In this second flight the pilot did some tricks to see that if they are really following an UFO or it was a case of misinterpretation or mistaken identity. The pilot tuned off all the lights of the aircraft to confirm that he was not chasing a canopy reflection. He was not. Then he carefully observed the object in relation to stars to confirm that he was not chasing a plant or a star. Finally when the jet came closer to the UFO he opened the radar gun sights. This gun sight enables enemy planes to be “locked on” for aiming purposes. And to his surprise the object was “locked on”.

However the second jet also ran out of fuel and pursuit had to be discontinued.

What was that object? It is now near impossible to tell. But such strange events really make us think sometimes. The absence of physical evidences supports the theory that there is nothing like UFO’s and aliens. But why these incidents happen at all and that too at different parts of the world and with different people.