Recent UFO Sightings in New Hampshire

It's easy for me to get lost in New England's old weird folklore. Every now and then I need to stick my head up from the old books and look at what's happening now - New England's new weird folklore.

A lot of people use the word paranormal when they are talking about strange modern phenomena. 'Paranormal' sounds more scientific than 'folklore,' and I suppose it suits the technological era that we live in. But I don't think it's dismissive to lump modern paranormal phenomena with older folklore. Both terms refer to the same thing: weird activity or stories that don't comfortably fit in other more reputable categories like history, science, or religion.

Anyway, regardless of terminology, on December 1, 2014 someone stopped at a traffic light in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and saw a UFO. They didn't see a metallic spaceship or anything of that sort, but instead some mysterious lights in the sky. Shining through the cloud cover they could see a large white circle of lights. Sometimes the lights had a bluish tinge, sometimes pinkish, but mostly they remained white.

There was an additional light that rotated around the circle of lights, but the circle itself stayed stationary.

It stayed in the same place with the bigger light just rotating around the circle of stationary light. I kept trying to see if there was a craft there, but could not make out any shape of a craft as this was just above the cloud cover. My first thought is that whoever it was must have thought they were hiding above the cloud, but the lights were clearly visible.

When the traffic light turned green the witness drive forward and pulled off the road, but when he looked back up the UFO had disappeared.

Carl Jung in 1910 (from Wikipedia)

It's a cool sighting! I don't know what UFOs are, but people have been seeing them for centuries. There are many theories about what they are, but the psychiatrist Carl Jung might be able to shed light (forgive the pun) on this particular incident. Jung claimed there were similarities between UFOs and the many circular holy symbols in world religions. For example, he drew connections between saints' halos, Hindu and Buddhist mandalas, the wheel seen by the prophet Ezekiel, and modern UFOs. Jung claimed all of these were mystical experiences, and that circular shapes symbolized spiritual wholeness.

I like that theory, but what would he say about the large number of triangular UFOs seen in New Hampshire? Mark Podell, an investigator with MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), investigates 5 - 10 New Hampshire UFO sightings each month. Many people see circular UFOs, but many others see triangular lights in the sky. If you want to see one yourself, you might want to visit Franconia Notch at night. Podell says that's where 80% of the reports come from. I've been up there many times myself, and it is very, very dark at night. It's probably a good place to witness strange phenomena.

You can hear more from Mark Podell, and see a video of a possible UFO seen in Derry, in the video below.


I found the information about the UFO in Portsmouth from the MUFON website, which is always interesting.

A Triangular UFO Seen in Bethlehem, New Hampshire

This week I'm posting about something a little more contemporary: a UFO that was seen recently in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.

On February 6, several motorists on Bethlehem's Main Street stopped their cars to watch an object in the sky:

While driving home around dusk we observed odd white lights hovering in the sky at a low altitude maybe 500- 1000 feet. Several other drivers noticed and pulled over/slammed on their breaks, we continued driving however to try to get to a better spot. Upon getting closer to the object, you could see three distinct white lights forming a triangle shape, with a faint triangular outline that blended in with the sky but you could tell there was something there. (from the MUFON report)

If you've ever been to the White Mountains in the winter you know that it's really, really dark up there. Even though Bethlehem is relatively lively it's still pretty dark and quiet.

A photo of a triangular UFO seen in Belgium from the UFO Casebook.

People have been seeing weird things in New England's skies for centuries. In 1638 some Boston men saw what is probably North America's first documented UFO. While rowing on the Muddy River, James Everell and two companions saw a strange light in the sky. It first took the shape of a pig, then an arrow. The men watched the light fly back and forth between Charlestown and Boston for a while before it disappeared. After the light vanished the men realized they were now several miles up the river from where they started, a location that would have required them to row hard against the current, which they hadn't done.

In the early 1900s, thousands of people across New England saw a mysterious airship, similar to a zeppelin, flying through the night skies. One of the biggest sightings happened on the evening of December 23, 1909 when an estimated two thousand people gathered on Worcester's Main Street to watch a mysterious lighted object fly across the city and circle city hall before disappearing. The public believed it was an airship created by a local inventor named Wallace Tillinghast, but no hard evidence ever was found to support this theory.

There are lots of theories about what UFOs really are: alien visitors, pranksters from another dimension, secret government spy missions, etc. UFO stands for "Unidentified Flying Object," and I think the key word there is "unidentified." By their very nature UFOs can't ever really be known. They will always remain ambiguous and open to different interpretations dictated by culture and history.

Carl Jung was captivated by the round shape of the flying saucers which were seen in the twentieth century. For Jung the vehicles' circular shape was reminiscent of a mandala, a symbol of completion and wholeness. Perhaps, he suggested, they were images emerging from mankind's collective unconscious in a time of crisis.

It's an interesting theory, but UFOs are now seen in a variety of shapes, including the triangular one seen in Bethlehem. Another triangular UFO was seen in Amherst, Massachusetts on February 3, 2013, almost exactly one year ago to the date that this most recent triangular UFO was seen. What do triangular UFOs in early February signify to New England? Maybe the message will become clearer if one appears in 2015.