I was forwarded this article which I think is from the Guardian website.  It is by Mark Smith, 07 May 2009

I was forwarded this article which I think is from the Guardian website.  It is by Mark Smith, 07 May 2009

"For anyone in the know, Yorkshire has long been the place to see if the truth really is out there," the Post boldly declared (http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/highlights/Man-with-jetpack-flies-over.5227945.jp) this week, with characteristic chutzpah. But it’s not truth in the wider sense of things, such as "why are we here?" or "how does Betty make such good pastries?" No, the truth they’re on about is Mulder and Scully’s brand of the truth: little green men and military UFO conspiracies.

Yorkshire’s lofty standing in the realm of the paranormal has passed me by, I have to confess, but the Post goes as far as calling it "Britain’s hotspot for sightings". The reason for all this anti-scientific bunkum is the imminent descent of some of the world’s foremost X-Files junkies to Scarborough, where UFO investigators will gather for a two-day conference that aims to unearth the real mysteries surrounding the existence of extra-terrestrial life.

The Post’s website invites you to judge for yourself (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2999987001?bctid=22129010001) with a video interview with the conference’s organiser, Russ Kellett. The North Yorkshire-based UFO enthusiast eagerly cues up some shaky home movie footage of a dark blob moving across the sky in support of his vocation

Among the guest speakers are the editor of the Flying Saucer Review, Harry Challenger, and Glen Steckling, the president of the Adamski Foundation, which was established in 1965 to provide scientific proof of extra-terrestrials. Abduction investigator Hilary Porter – the co-founder of the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society – and a London-based UFO expert, Roy Hale, will also offer their thoughts at the conference.

Kellett, who lives in Filey, said: "The conference is about getting people together to have an informed debate on the subject. We will be showing exclusive footage of sightings, but we also want people to come forward with their own experiences.

Kellett’s own experience of the unexplained includes a bizarre close encounter at a Yorkshire railway crossing 21 years ago. He was left with raw, red scarring on his hands, neck and face after spotting a bright light hovering above as he waited on his motorbike at the crossing near Keighley in 1988. Since then he has spent up to 15 hours each week scanning the skies above Yorkshire in the hope of capturing evidence of UFO activity on his video camera.

"There are an awful lot of events that have not been explained adequately by the authorities, and we want to give people the chance to discuss their own sightings with UFO experts," says Kellett. "It is not to say that there are little green men who have landed on earth, but I truly believe that we are not alone in the universe."

The Post says North Yorkshire has emerged as a hotspot for UFO sightings in recent years, and that Kellett has received more than 70 reports of UFOs in the county in the first four months of this year alone. The county’s lack of light pollution and the clear skies along
the east coast makes it an ideal hunting ground for UFOs, apparently.

Tickets for the Flying Saucers Have Landed conference, which is at the Spa centre on 29 and 30 October, are available at the door for GBP12.