Encounters- Episode 4

 

See here for my review of Encounters episode 3: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2023/12/encounters-episode-3.html.
After a jaunt around the world from Wales to Zimbabwe to the United States, the Encounters series ends in Japan. After the 2011 tsunami and the destruction of the Fukushima nuclear plant, a number of people in the area reported UFO sightings. This includes the Chief Monk at the temple, Tomonori Izumi. He saw lights appear over the doomed power station and there are some photos and video recordings of them. A relief volunteer, Keisuke Udagawa, saw multiple blue lights out to sea. Jiwo Sakuma was also in the area and he has had communication experiences ever since. The Japanese see the UFO phenomenon somewhat differently to most other nationalities. They describe them using terms like Hitotama which means the spiritual residue of somebody who has just died, a kind of ghost. Seeing as so many people died on that terrible day, there will be a lot of Hitotama about. There is another Netflix series called Unsolved Mysteries that also tackles this enigma in an episode called Tsunami Spirits, see: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9642938/. The connection between UFO's and nuclear energy has been noticed many times; especially nuclear weapons, but also power. It's no coincidence that the modern UFO era began at about the same time we developed this technology. UFO's were seen at the Chernobyl disaster, a similar event that happened in Ukraine in 1986. Amazingly their presence seemed to lower the levels of radioactive particles in the environment. Are the aliens helping us? The programme features an interview with Dr Diana Pasulka, somebody who has become very well-known on the UFO scene lately; and she believes UFO's play a similar role to religion in the modern world. One of the most interesting parts of this programme was the strange story of the Utsuro-bune, literally "hollow boat". This was a disk-shaped object found floating in the sea just off a beach in 1803. It was pulled ashore by fishermen and inside was a small young woman. She lived among the people for a while, but spoke only a foreign language. She had unusual physical features too. Eventually she returned to the boat and it sailed back out to sea. What is interesting is that this event, even though it is very old, was recorded by multiple historical texts. Of course, the Utsuro-bune was never seen to fly, so some skeptics see no reason why this should not simply be some kind of boat, but UFO's are often seen coming in and out of the sea and one expert interviewed, Dr Jensine Andresen, thinks they have a presence under the ocean, even though they do not originate there. This final episode was a good end to a fascinating series. We're seeing plenty of UFO themed documentaries at the moment and I say the more the better.