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[Music] as Humanity slowly perfected its military dominance over the land and sea it didn't take long for some of the prominent leaders and great minds of the past to turn their attention upward ground combat had been mastered but what about the sky if a man could somehow find a way to re hell on his enemy from above then who could hope to challenge him long before the invention of powered flight the proc ECT of ruling the air while often seen as mere fantasy was taken seriously by some military and government leaders in a 1784 letter
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written just after the successful Flight of the world's first hot air balloon Benjamin Franklin himself mused over the Strategic possibilities offered by such Vehicles saying quote 5,000 balloons capable of raising two men each would not cost more than five ships of the line and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of Mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them in short Franklin
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predicted the success of paramilitary operations well before they were finally implemented in the 20th century however for the people of Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries then torn between Newfound science and devout religious Faith the Scot sky was still a place of mystery a place of angels and gods where no mortal man was ever meant to walk so saying without the existence of flying machines to speak of in the year 1566 many Europeans were of course startled when they witnessed something Beyond explanation in the skies
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overhead against the backdrop of a peaceful Summer Morning the citizens of the Swiss city of Basil saw what can only be described as a great battle in the sky between hundreds of sphere-shaped objects this is the story of The Unexplained battle over [Music] basil the Mist which hangs before you offers you a choice to pass through or to escape Beyond it are stories which defy explanation and fly in the face of what we know to be real it is a void of both reality and impossibility of both fact and super you alone are left to discern what
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to believe as you pass through what we call F yeah [Applause] [Music] in the early years of the 16th century the European continent was in the midst of a major societal Evolution the 1400s had brought about the Renaissance a period defined by the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts that forever changed how people looked at well everything on the back of Newfound philosophies the very foundations of European societies began to change with people reanalyzing everything they thought they knew about art human nature
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religion and science with Renaissance ideals placing great value on individual thought and open questioning of the world around them it wasn't long until people began to challenge the political systems and religious doctrines of the early modern world the Catholic church in particular Drew its share of outspoken critics and as the 16th century rolled around their voices only grew louder in 1517 a disgruntled Monk and theology Professor by the name of Martin Luther marched up to the steps of the Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany
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before nailing his thesis to the front door his 95 thesis a scathing critique of corruption within the Catholic Church sent shock waves throughout Europe and is often credited with starting the Protestant Reformation inspired by Luther new religious sects began to rise and break away from the church's author Authority this would result in numerous clashes all over Europe as Protestant Lutheran calvinist and Anglican supporters came to blows with Catholic authorities as the religious landscape became more and more fractured war was
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all but inevitable in the loose collection of German States known as the Holy Roman Empire peasant revolts against the feudal Lords resulted in brutal crackdowns claiming over 100,000 lives meanwhile in neighboring France period of civil war between Catholics and French Protestants known as the hugenots would rage for over 30 years by the time the Catholics had claimed Victory 2 to four million more people are believed to have perished finding itself at the crossroads of France Italy and the Holy Roman Empire the small
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country of Switzerland was similarly affected by The Strife wreaking havoc across its Regional neighbors the two Wars of kappal waged between Protestant and Catholic forces es in the late 1520s and early 1530s resulted in hundreds of deaths and a decisive Catholic Victory about 30 years later the effects of the conflict were still widely felt in Swiss Society with disgruntled Protestants often budding heads with the Catholic still in power for the citizens of Basil a small City straddling the Ry River on the country's northern border with both
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France and the Holy Roman Empire the latter half of the 16th century was filled with fear and UNC certainty with war and plague spreading all over Europe everyday people found themselves spiritually torn Protestant and Catholic factions only worsened these tensions by leveraging the fears of the common person in order to sway public support for their respective causes still despite the ongoing turmoil July 27th 1566 started just the same as any other day for the people of Basil a bustling economic Hub the city docks echoed with
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the calls of merchants the Waterway filled with fishing and commerce vessels making their way up and down the Ry River as the sun began to dip beneath the Western Horizon this seemingly ordinary day would quickly become quite [Music] extraordinary well how about it any bites not not in a slightest for the past few hours I think it's about time we found a spot it's all these damn boats I tell you up and down the river they go all day long good for nothing but scaring away all the fish you think this is just the Lord's way of getting
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us to crawl back to the Catholics if only the man himself were here he helped Peter and the others fill two whole boats I do anything for even a bite at this point is it just my eyes or is the sky suddenly getting darker what in God's name going red according to a number of witnesses the morning and afternoon of July 27th unfolded without incident but around 900 p.m.
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the sun suddenly went dark its dull glow bathing the city in ominous red light in a news pamphlet widely published in the days following the dramatic events writer Samuel cootus describes the unnerving scene during the year 1566 on the 27th of July after the sun had Shone warm on the clear bright skies and then around 9:00 p.m. it suddenly took a different shape and color first the sun lost all its Radiance and luster and it was no bigger than the full moon and finally it seemed to weep Tears of Blood and the air behind him went dark and he was seen by all the people
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of the city and Countryside in much the same way also the Moon which has already been almost full and has Shone through the night assuming an almost blood red color in the sky the next day Sunday the sun rose at about 6:00 and slept with the same appearance it had when it was lying before he lit the houses streets and around as if everything was blood red and fiery for 24 hours the people of Basil looked up at the red sky with a mix of of fear and confusion desperate for answers it didn't take long for the
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scientific thinkers and religious zealots to begin offering up a number of theories were they witnessing some kind of atmospheric phenomenon or as many feared was God sending them some kind of prophetic warning before Panic got the better of people the city breathed a collective sigh of relief when on the morning of July 29th the vibrant sun and blue skies returned as if they had never left despite this welcome return to normaly the citizens of Bassel were left with far more questions than answers and as they were soon to discover the
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Heavenly drama was far from over [Music] [Music] several days later on August 7th 1566 the sun rose over basil bringing with it a bizarre sight seen by many citizens high in the sky over the Eastern Horizon against the backdrop of the Rising Sun writer Samuel Kus describes the scene that followed at the dawn of August 7 we saw large black spheres coming and going with great speed and precision before the the Sun and chattered as if they led a fight many of them were fiery red and soon crumbled and then extinguished while the average 16th
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century person may have lacked the technical vocabulary to describe what was seen cooch's report gathered from numerous first and secondhand sources Paints the picture of an air battle playing out in the Skies over basil hundreds of sphere-like objects described by eyewitnesses as cannonballs chased one another in dizzy patterns across the sky moving with speed intelligence and intent silhouetted against the Rising Sun the Spheres were seen to be black in color however a number were noted as burning fiery red
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as they suddenly plummeted from the sky dissolving into smoke and Ash before impacting the ground as what appeared to be rival squadrons of these fighting cannonballs met each other over the city a distinct chattering noise echoed across the sky the strange sounds seeming to come from the unknown objects as they were knocking one another out of the air for the next several hours the people of Basil were transfixed by the sight watching as these strange objects continued to Chase and shoot one another down until finally all of them had faded
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from view in the Eerie silence that followed a frightened and Confused population was left desperate for an explanation and the competing Protestant and Catholic leaders were more than happy to provide [Music] one the unidentified aerial phenomenon cited over basil is fascinating in that it took place at a point when Humanity was taking its first tentative steps into the world of science we were only just beginning to grasp the workings of the natural world and the Universe At Large with both the invention of the
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aircraft and the notion of the possible existence of other Advanced life forms still centuries away this mid-6th Century event was largely interpreted through a religious lens the strange events were recorded in a document known as the basil pamphlet which was written by Samuel cochius and illustrated by Samuel apiarius this document was widely publicized in the days following August 7th considering the incredible story it told the document was quickly carried well beyond the borders of Switzerland reading about the Blood Red Skies and
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supposed Air Battle enlightened thinkers who placed their faith in science struggled to explain what was seen meanwhile devout religious Believers proclaimed the events to be a sign from God but both Protestants and Catholics seem to have different interpretations competing to see who could win the favor of the masses while some saw the Bassel incident as an ominous warning of the coming Judgment Day others saw it as God voicing his displeasure with Humanity a call for everyone to repent trust in faith and write their wrongs for
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thousands of people all over Europe their countries ravaged by War and plague or torn between religion and science taking aside was often easier said than done however as the Civilized World debated over the unknown the people of nurburg a German city of the Holy Roman Empire were struck by an overwhelming sense of familiarity reading about the strange happenings in basil many residents couldn't help but recall the strange sites that played out in the skies of their own City just 5 years [Music] prior on April 14th
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1561 in an event eily similar to that in Switzerland the early morning sun over nurmberg would suddenly fall dark now dull against a deep red sky looking towards the horizon thousands of City residents as well as its surrounding settlements observed strange dark shapes appearing against the morning sun having witnessed the event firsthand Hans Glasser nber's Chief letter painter described the ensuing air battle in a detailed news broadsheet published in the days following the sighting in the morning of April 14th 1561 at
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Daybreak between 4: and 5:00 a.m. a dreadful Apparition occurred on the sun and sens this was seen in nurenberg in the city before Cates and in the country by many men and women at first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood red semicircular arcs just like the moon in its last quarter and in San above and below and on both sides the color was blood there stood a round ball of partly dull partly black ferah color likewise there stood on both sides and as a Taurus about the sun such blood red ones and other balls in larger number
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about three in a line and four in a square also some alone in between these Globes they have visible a few blood red crosses between which there were blood red strips becoming sicker to the rear and in the front malleable like rods of Reed grass which were intermingled amongst them two big rods one on the right the other on the left and within the small and big rods there were three also four or more Globes these all started to fight among themselves so that the Globes which were first in the sun flew out to the the
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ones standing on both sides thereafter the Globes standing outside the sun in the small and large rods flew into the sun besides the Globes flew back and forth amongst themselves and fought vemi with each other for over an hour and when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense they became fatigued to such an extent that they all as said above fell from the Sun down above on the earth as if they all burned and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke after this there was something
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like a black spear very long and thick sighted the shaft pointed to the east the point pointed West whatever such signs mean God Alone knows although we have seen shortly one after another many kinds of signs on the heaven which are sent to us by the almighty God to bring us to repentance we still are unfortunately so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of god or we speak of them with ridicule and discards them to Zend in orderers that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our
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ungratefulness after all the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs but will take it to heart as a the warning of their merciful Father in Heaven who mend their lives and Faithfully beg God that he may avert his wrath including zel deserve punishment on us so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there live as his children for it may God grant us his help amen by Hans gassa letter painter of nunberg [Music] [Music] [Music] glasser's detailed account of the nberg air Battle Bears striking similarities
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to the one witnessed over Bassel the dimming Sun seeming to Signal the arrival of these strange flying objects however the nature of the Spheres seen over nberg seemed to be far more varied in their physical appearance while orbs or sphere-like shapes were similarly prominent there were also crosses crescents and cylinders or rods described among the many objects seemingly combating each other in the sky not only that but some of these objects namely the cylinders appeared to launch squadrons of the Spheres into the
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battle operating in a manner that might be described as similar to that of a modern aircraft carrier whatever they were what's interesting to note is that while the numerous unknown phenomena moved in an intelligent manner Glasser observed that a number of them fell from the sky as if exhausted perhaps his meaning was to say that these must be a kind of living being or creatures of a divine nature Angels fighting demons to put it bluntly then of course there's the matter of the much larger spear-like
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Apparition that followed in the battle's aftermath with its tip pointing West and the shaft pointing East it eerily loomed over the city for a number of hours before Vanishing from view much like their Swiss counterparts only a few years later the people of nurmberg found themselves at a crossroad between science and Faith whether it was a battle between the forces of Heaven and Hell a little understood natural event or something else there was one thing everyone could agree on something range was happening in the Skies over Europe
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and whatever forces were at play they weren't done fighting just [Music] yet nearly a 100 years after the strange events over Switzerland Europe was still reeling in the wake of the Protestant Reformation the religious fracturing and resulting civil conflicts left no shortage of Bad Blood between Catholic and Protestant sects all over the continent with the dawn of the 17th century those old tensions once again threatened to boil over into allout war within the Holy Roman Empire which was already a fragile Alliance of loosely
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connected German states harsh anti-protestant measures enacted by Emperor Ferdinand II a staunch Catholic resulted in a Protestant Rebellion against the crown in 1619 what began as a localized conflict soon roped in some of Europe's major Powers each seeking to expand their political and territorial influence over lands controlled by the hsbg dynasty this event would become known as the 30 Years War resulting in some 4 to8 million deaths this conflict would forever reshape the political and territorial maps of Europe with new
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powers rising out of holy Rome's diminishing strength one of these Powers was the Swedish Empire and in the aftermath of the war which came to an end in 1648 the Swedish Crown established itself on the European Mainland now controlling parts of Northern Germany as its Navy dominated the Baltic Sea by the 1660s the Swedish age of greatness was in full swing a time of economic Prosperity stability and Military Prestige earned on the backs of their conquests as in the previous stories for the residents of the German city of
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stousland which was now under Swedish control April April 8 1665 started out like any normal day within the Empire along the Waterway near the city six fishermen were setting out on their daily Voyage to the popular Baltic fishing grounds however their attention would soon be drawn away from the water and towards the sky above dowo on trap anchor Lads ready those Nets to cast off I've got a good feeling about this one a better feeling San you had off bof yesterday I hope captain Oh that's enough out of you the
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Seas and all her creatures are about as easy to predict as the VIN you'll come to know at this age boy ah the wisdom of the old Sals never before has it led us astray hey Sven what on Earth are you looking at huh come help me with these lines oh sorry say do you see that the birds yeah you ever see starling's fly like that there so many and in such a strange formation now you mention it no I don't think I have that is quite strange as the captain of the small vessel ordered his crew to strike their
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sails and dropped anchor one of the young fishermen Drew their attention to a massive flock of nearby Birds likely starlings Taking Flight as one massive formation the crew watched in bewilderment as the Black Mass moved across the sky eventually breaking apart it was then that things truly got weird in name havegot get down boys in arguably one of the most remarkable accounts of unidentified aerial phenomenon ever recorded the fishermen described seeing this large flock of birds now taking the shape of floating
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wooden warships which proceeded to fight one another in the skies The Fleets circled and Unleashed broadsides at one another the sounds of their cannons like distant Thunder as the gunpowder smoke created an eerie Haze soon other ships floated in from the skies to the east and west these smaller vessels quickly joining the fierce aerial battle after the fishermen had watched this bizarre fight for quite some time the skies once again became quiet the haze created by the heavy gunfire fading to reveal the damaged floating wrecks of the remaining
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ships stunned and terrified the fisherman then saw that among the torn sails flags and collapsed masts of these floating Wooden Ships the shapes of men were running about the decks seeming to work at repairing the vessels standing on the edge of one of the ships was one particularly distinct figure possibly an officer clad in a brown coat a hat tucked under his arm as he seemed to be watching the crew around him work on their various tasks eventually around 600 p.m.
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the floating airships appeared to move north fading from the fisherman's view as yet another strange object descended through the clouds now floating in silence over the city of straand the fisherman watched as a large disc-shaped object dark gray in appearance came to hover above the central Spire of St Nicholas church writing about the event some years later osus francesi a popular author of the German Baroque Period describes what the fisherman saw from a distance after a v out of the sky came a flat round form like a plate looking like the big hat of
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a man its color was that of the darkening Moon and it hovered right over the Church of St Nikolai there it remained stationary until evening the fishermen worried to death didn't want to look further at the spectacle and buried their faces in their hands on the following days they fell sick with trembling all over and pain in the head and limbs many scholarly people thought a lot about that what's especially interesting to note about frances's report is the mention of the fisherman having some sort of
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physical reaction to the unidentified craft this is something documented in contemporary UFO Encounters in which Witnesses who happen to be in close proximity to the crafts later experienced strange Burns skin irritation or other symptoms of radiation exposure with the fisherman sickness being defined by fever intense muscle pains and trembling it's possible that the six men could have Fallen victim to bubonic plague which was wreaking havoc all over Europe in the 1660s however with their ailment coinciding with the Armada of mysterious
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airships and the apparent Flying Saucer seen over straand many do wonder if the events Were Somehow connected again as with their Swiss and German counterparts a century earlier the Swedish fishermen and the inhabitants of St were left dumbfounded by the events they witnessed while these events remain an unsolved mystery a sincere quest to find answers to these and other encounters wouldn't begin until well after Humanity had already taken [Music] [Music] flight the strange events seen over Bassel nurmberg and straand intrigued
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people all over the continent at the time but they were soon forgotten it wouldn't be until the mid 20th century that the sightings were once again reexamined this time against the backdrop of modern science and the recent UFO craze sweeping the United States in his 1958 book flying saucers a modern myth of things seen in the skies Swiss psychologist and author Carl Young examined the Bassel incident and other such cases with an eye for both human psychology and natural phenomenon perhaps his decades long study of UFOs
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was in part based on these incidents having taken place in his homeland of Switzerland but young was never an outright believer in the existence of UFOs as concrete physical objects he postulated instead that they could represent psychic phenomena expressing the inner workings of the human Mind through his observation young otherwise believed that many of these early sightings could be attributed to simple misidentification young proposed that events like these were more likely the result of little understood natural phenomenon something
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that the Europeans at that time were generally unaware of how light could be influenced by elements both within and beyond Earth's atmosphere optical illusions caused by unique atmospheric conditions such as Fatam Morana or the effects of thermal inversion can create distorted images of objects located just Beyond the Horizon some have even gone so far as to theorize that the stra Land Air war was the result of one of these mirages with the fisherman witnessing an actual naval battle that was playing out
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in the Baltic Sea but was being refracted and reflected through the Earth's atmosphere overhead it is also suggested that solar and lunar eclipses and even clouds of dust traveling thousands of miles north from the Saharan Desert could result in the red skies and darkened Suns observed in both the Bassel and nurburg sightings on a more local level perhaps even the smoke of forest fires burning many miles away played a role in creating a haze that passed through the Skies over the two cities while all of these theories
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sound fairly reasonable save for the refraction of a naval battle one none of them can fully account for the many strange objects witnessed by hundreds of people seemingly locked in vicious aerial combat perhaps large formations of birds or possibly even swarms of insects are to blame rising from the ground in migratory flights or mating displays the latter would explain why some of the mystery objects appeared to Chase and even collide with one another in the sky however if these were just ordinary animals then how do we explain
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the testimony of those who saw these objects burst into flames or fall from the sky in smoking ruins or how about the chattering noises or cannon fire often heard emanating from the Airborne frenzy the only possible explanation for all these stories to be EXP explained by science is that the witness accounts of the events were largely exaggerated and embellished with added details for many UFO enthusiasts the people of basil nurmberg and strand caught glimpses of a war between rival extraterrestrial forces this Theory
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though possibly outlandish when paired alongside the other more scientific Alternatives does raise its own set of thought-provoking and hair-raising questions who are these alien beings and where did they come from why are they fighting one another and why in the Skies over our planet and finally even with our advancements in military aircraft and other technology could we possibly stand a chance against fighting something that we can't even explain [Music] hey guys thanks for sticking around for the after action here in the credits
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it's funny you know Hamlet was written at the uh the turn of the century uh around 16001 and Shakespeare himself was born in in 1560s 15 I I looked it up but 1564 so he was still an infant when all these strange events were happening over Europe makes you wonder if any of the strange things that had happened during his early childhood and were talked about or he had later heard about them cuz what else at that time you know do you think people would have talked about strange balls of light and black spheres
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hovering over the the countryside would certainly seem to be something that would be brought up at some point in conversation so you have to wonder if when he wrote that line there are stranger things in Heaven and Earth htio than are dreamt of in your philosophy was possibly inspired by such strange things we'll never know but I I really wanted to touch on this story because as many contemporary UFO stories and call them Celestial phenomenon stories there are in the last century this is one that I I have found and I have to give credit
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to Jake a writer for finding the other two I had not ever heard about those the one that had taken place 5 years earlier over Germany Norberg as well as apparently the The Wooden Ships that story to me is so baffling when I try to look at it more open-mindedly and say okay this actually happened fisherman as well as others witnessed a flock of birds transform into a fleet of flying ships that then battled it out destroyed each other and the surviving ships floated off into the sky and then a giant craft like a dinner
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plate came down and hovered over a nearby church I don't know what the craft had anything to do with it maybe extraterrestrial craft or whatever these things are are what affect the space-time Continuum dimensional over lap like it there was a projection from a past event that was carried forward similar to other time travel events we've talked about and that's what they witnessed there was a Futurama episode where they traveled through time and when they went so far forward that basically they watched the universe
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being recreated and they ended up right back to where they started Professor Farnsworth says that the the the future is 10 ft higher than the last one so the reason reason that the ships were up in the sky was because at that time in the past the placement of the Earth was higher whatever the birds had to do with it the SPAC I don't know right all of it doesn't make any sense but I'm trying to be rational here versus just discounting it as some sort of medieval prank I mean maybe all of these were just medieval pranks but you
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wonder if people in the printing business would go so far at that time as to print these sorts of things and put their name on it not something we delved into into the research but the story and its record have continued for the last 500 years so make of it what you will but I I found it a very interesting series of stories to tell uh from a very long time ago but anyway thank you for watching thank you for listening for subscribing uh to all of you who support the channel thank you so much especially both my YouTube channel
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members and my patreon supporters thank you thank you thank you going to be cranking out as many episodes as we can many more stories to come may God be with you no matter what you were dealing with and I will see you in the next episode