Hans Grasholm

Vice President

UFO Yukon
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I use to be a hard-core realist. If things did not fit into normal set of laws or there was no solid proof, they did not exist. So it was with God and Flying Saucers.

Then, in 1975, I saw the TV show "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich von Daniken. Whether all or just some of the statement in that show were true is not the point, but that TV show opened my eyes; it explained in my mind both God and flying saucers. I became so enthralled with UFOs that I had to buy every magazine and book about the subject. To my surprise, as I learned about flying saucers, I realized that I had already had three classical sightings of UFO's.

The first two sightings were as a boy in Denmark during World War II. One was a huge ball that literally rolled across the heavens above me, the second was a saucer shaped object that had a red glow. Although the ball (mothership) scared me, I had no conception as a seven year old boy, that what I was seeing were flying ships with possible intelligent beings inside them.

My third sighting was around 1966 here in the Yukon with my wife as a witness. We were driving the Alaska Hwy. About 5 km south of Whitehorse, going toward town when my wife asked "is that a balloon hanging over the trees to the left of the highway up ahead?" We had watched it for a minute, and although we had moved about 1.5 km closer to the object, it had hardly grown in size, so it had to be some distance from us. At that point from being perfectly stationary above the trees, it suddenly disappeared out toward the horizon and within a second was out of sight. Since I did not believe in UFOs at the time, I surmised that someone had shot a hole in the 'balloon' and it had collapsed in such a way that it looked like flying into the horizon away from us. Also, the fact that there were no sonic boom convinced me that it had to be a balloon, no object could move that fast and not make a sound.

I must confess, 'I lied to myself.' Being the pi-headed realist I was, 'UFO's did not exist', so I purposely dismissed two other observations in this sighting which I would not explain to myself, the observations in this sighting which I would not explain to myself, the observations that told me that "this is not a balloon".

I was 41 years of age when Eric von Daniken removed my blindfolds. It is one thing to be ignorant, but telling myself that things don't exist just because I can't explain them, that is plain stupidity. So, am I still a realist today? You bet I am. I realize how little I know, and the more I learn, the more questions I can ask. The universe is still full of mysteries, and wondering about them is what keeps me young.

Incidentally, I have had one more UFO sighting, about 15 months ago. I still look at those sightings with skepticism, even though I had ruled out all other things it could not be, it still took six months before I classified it as a UFO, and that wasn't until someone informed me that my sighting had been observed before.

Postscript:
Now I get very upset when I hear the phrase "do you believe in UFOs." It is no longer a matter of belief. There are so many sightings from around the world, and that in it self is proof. Just because we don't understand their technology or they work with laws of physics we have no knowledge about, is no excuse to say, "they don't exist." If you are ignorant of the whole aspect of UFO's, I will forgive you. If you say "I know all about UFO's, and they don't exist," then you are far from being honest to yourself, and for that I have no respect. I know, I was like that once.

 

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