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.

In recent years the excavation and subsequent translation of thousands of clay tablets from the ancient land of the Sumerians has sparked a new controversy over just who we humans really are and where we originated. Based primarily on the work of the linguistic scholar Zechariah Sitchin, these translated writings from the earliest days of our known history tell some interesting and occasionally shocking stories about our beginnings.

Along with lists of daily business transactions there are extensive and detailed tables of scientific and astronomical information. The priest/scientist class of these ancient people were very interested in the movements of the planets with especial care about the proper times when a spacecraft/rocket could travel from Earth to what is described as the home planet of their gods. This was not mythology for the Sumerians as these gods lived among them and ruled over them.

Added to the fact that these tablets accurately portrayed all the planets of our solar system, including those only visible with large telescopes, is the system by which they are numbered. The planets in the ancient Sumerian texts count inward from outer space rather than outward from the sun.

Annunaki or Annukim translates from the Sumerian language as "Those who from the sky (or stars) came". The discovered tablets contain stories of how the planet of the gods entered our solar system very long ago and destabilized the planets to the point of causing the destruction of one, now circling the sun as the asteroid belt, and the collision of two others. These two broke up and ultimately reformed as the Earth and the Moon.

Much later, as the new planet Earth stabilized and developed life, the Annunaki journeyed from their home planet, called Nibiru, and set up several colonies on the young planet. The primary purpose for this colonization was to mine several natural resources, most notably gold, to be used to repair the damaged atmosphere of their home world. It is recorded on these tablets that the Annunaki are virtually immortal, with life spans so long that a single administrative assignment on Earth was two thousand years.

It is only circumstantial, but this could explain why, even as far from their colonies in what is now called the Middle East, there are fossil records that show in an ancient Texas mudflat, the tracks of a shoe wearing human crossing and mixing with the tracks of a dinosaur. From these tablets comes the belief that these aliens have been here from the very beginning.