Topic: Interesting Article -- Otherworldly Visitors from Orion's Mintaka star?

[Alieo]

http://paranormal.about.com/od/timeanddimensiontravel/a/aa031708.htm

Makes me want to launch one of those probes we sent to Pluto out to Mintaka!

[Scyphi]

Mm, it's an interesting tale, although I am admittedly a little hesitant at looking too much into it. The reason being is that, one particularly boring evening (or something, I forget exactly why I started) I sat down and researched a whole bunch of those close encounter stories, and learned that many to most of them all run in similar, distinct, patterns (save one oddball story that broke all of the typical trends and was interesting in it's implications because of it, I'd link you to it if I could find it again), so much so, it makes for an unlikely coincidence. Granted, one can use that to both argue for and against these stories, and I won't deny either possibility. I just feel the need to be...open-minded, and consider all the possibilities, y'know?

[Alieo]

...many to most of them all run in similar, distinct, patterns ... so much so, it makes for an unlikely coincidence.

I know what you mean by that. I felt this story was a little odd in what they encountered, the "vehicle" they were in, that there were "normal people" inside it, and that it took off into the Mintaka system of Orion, but that's just a generalized area; it could have been any cluster of star systems in that general direction. I also wonder if it wasn't some sort of top secret hologram thing where maybe this couple was in a lab somewhere (in what we know as our "dimension" and "reality" and this orb was a projection of them, yet it had properties that allowed them to reach out and pick the blades of grass.

I just feel the need to be...open-minded, and consider all the possibilities, y'know?

Absolutely! I don't just believe that an alternate dimension/reality exists, I know it does. I have had a couple of profound experiences to convince me it does, and I think it takes a personal experience to be convinced. Otherwise, if all we see is what is on our plane, of course that is all that exists! Look what happened before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic. They thought the world was FLAT and the sun revolved around Earth! The other "dimension/reality" of North America was yet to be discovered! Then what happened when we (mankind) discovered the Americas? Well, our reality changed. It wasn't this "2D" so to speak plane; it became spherical... but wait, it didn't "become" spherical, it always was, and we just discovered it! So I know these other planes of reality are out there... or are they right here, coinciding in the same 4-dimensional space/time cube we seem to be "trapped" in?

[Scyphi]

Actually, while the details are unique, the overall flow of the encounter runs similar to various other tales I've read which, again, can be interpreted in a number of ways.

As for other dimensions existing, it depends on how you define "dimension." At times, the word is misused and associated with things that are technically not correct. Like parallel universes have been referred to as alternate dimensions, when that actually isn't correct, at least according to modern science.

Look what happened before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic. They thought the world was FLAT...

Actually, and this is a little off topic, but that's not true. By the time of Columbus, it was common knowledge to the educated of the time (meaning that the uneducated may have and probably did think differently) that the world was round already, and pretty much all navigators, like Columbus, knew this too. His voyage actually was never really about proving that the world was round, it was an attempt to prove that one could sail around the globe to reach India (one of the major centers of trade at the time) rather than taking the more treacherous route of sailing around Africa. What Columbus didn't count on was America standing between him and India.

Still, point taken.

Also, I found the "oddball story" I referred to above. Link. It's a little different from your story because it involves an abduction rather than just a close encounter, or at least an abduction gone wrong. That is, in fact, what has set it apart from the others, that and it's many unexplained implications. It's one of the more intriguing close encounter stories I've found for those reasons.