The Victorian UFO Action (VUFOA) attempted on Saturday to prove the existence of aliens on Earth, UFO sightings and extraterrestrial claims with the opening of the "An Edge of Reality" convention in Melbourne.
The conference is expected to gather around 130 UFO believers at the Jasper Hotel in Melbourne's commercial business district. There were feature presentations from experts across Australia, but the special guest was American author Chase Kloetzke.
Kloetzke is an investigator researcher of UFOs, paranormal activity, strange creatures and ancient civilizations. A member of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), she wrote 'Are Aliens Really Real?" and "Admissible."
She is not just a UFO "nut" since Kloetzke was also a master trainer for Pentagon, preparing troops for high-risk missions and special operations. She concedes that 95 percent of the paranormal investigations she did for MUFON have logical explanations but points to the remaining 5 percent as needing a deeper probe.
While a number of Australians share the belief with scientists that the galaxy where Earth is has life, there are disagreements over the physical presence of aliens on Earth. Ben Hurle, director of VUFOA which organized the conference, says different types of aliens have been on the planet. He explains, "These craft haven't crossed space in the nuts and bolts way we would think about it. They could travel dimensionally, getting here in ways we can't imagine," quotes The Age.
However, while Paul Dean, one of the conference speakers, says that there were 600 to 700 genuine UFO sightings since 1947, he asks "The question is, who is piloting them? I'm not sure the ET hypothesis explains it."
Kloetzke admits that most people think their group is trying to prove the existence of UFOs which are often satellites, misidentified jets or natural phenomena that could be explained. But she also stresses that not all UFO witnesses are drunk 16-year-old rural kids but includes astronauts and military and civilian pilots, and police officers.
She is aware of the stigma on UFO believers and acknowledges, "You are terrified of not being believed and there is the ridicule," quotes the Herald Sun.