Edit: this seems to be a photoshop. But all the following commentary remains valid. I kept an open mind, evaluated it, decided it was fake, then moved on. Many things, though, never really get classified, and remain, forever, merely “possible but unproven”. Emotionally, I can say “possible but likely”, or “possible but unlikely”, but recognizing the emotional bias, too, is part of the process of perception.
I would ask: who are the clever people? Are they the ones who insist that what they have not seen cannot be real? There are people who equate “science” with what is already known. This is really just a species of “Flat Earthism”. They think that because species evolved, that existing notions of evolution are sufficient. They think that because matter seems to exist, and because we can describe it with great precision, that the “bottom” must also consist in matter, even though the very science they use–quantum physics–says exactly the opposite. There is no matter, at the bottom, according to most. There is Consciousness. Consciousness makes “real” what was previously latent.
To my mind, keeping an open mind does not mean you need to believe every crazy story that comes along. But it also doesn’t mean you have to DISBELIEVE it. You don’t become scientific by saying “that violates all the known laws of science”. You become scientific when you evaluate, first, whether or not something actually happened. Science is all about empiricism, seeing, measuring, touching. If something happens repeatedly, then it is within the domain of science. Psi, precognition, the survival of death: these are all within the domain of science. Most people are simply too stupid, and too stubborn to see it.
We seem to live in a multiverse. Many things are possible. Many worlds coexist at the same time which we can’t, yet, see.
And while I’m at it, I’ll share a video I just saw the other day for the first time, Skinny Bob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQToaAqPMvY
Is it real? I don’t know. What I can say for certain is that it is not a stupid question. Gordon Cooper, Buzz Aldrin, and Edgar Mitchell (among many others) were all on record as either having seen (Aldrin and Cooper, and in his case twice) UFO’s at close range, or in Mitchell’s case of having interviewed many people with firsthand knowledge, such that he said repeatedly and publicly that the FACT of alien life and contact with humanity was something he was sure about. The man walked on the Moon, was a naval aviator, and then test pilot, and had a Ph.D in Aeronautical Engineering from MIT, making him a literal rocket scientist with a degree from one of the best schools in the world.
I don’t know what time it is, but it is certainly past time for the dogmatists among us, those incapable of the slightest shred of flexibility when it comes to their world views, to wake up and start following the smell of coffee.