UFODIMENSIONS NEWS :.

STAN GORDON: TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF STRANGE EVENTS

Unexplained flashes of light. Hairy beasts wandering through woods. Mysterious flying objects.

Southwestern Pennsylvania is a hotbed for strange occurrences such as these and one man has dedicated his life to making sense of them. Since age 10, Stan Gordon has collected information, images and ideas about what is really out there. Today, he takes calls from witnesses across the region.

An office in the basement of his Greensburg home is a tangible testament to his life's work. The room is packed with molds of abnormally large footprints, photos of flying crafts and records of recent sightings. Stuffed among the stuff are a half dozen radios, scanners and weather analysis machines, all used in Gordon's intense research.

"Just because we don't have answers to some mysteries doesn't mean we should dismiss them," he says, sitting in his living room, which is lined with bookshelves bursting with titles on the existence of extraterrestrials and Big Foot.

Since the late 1960s, Gordon has manned a UFO hotline, on which he's received calls from "literally thousands of people from all walks of life," including state troopers, local police and military pilots who can't explain something they've seen.

In the 1970s, the volume of calls became more than Gordon could handle alone, so he founded the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group. The volunteers included local scientists and researchers who offered expertise, access to lab equipment and their time for free. Upon fielding a call, members would visit the location and study various factors that could explain the phenomenon.

The group eventually disbanded and since the mid-'90s, Gordon has served as an independent researcher when he's not working his job as an electronic salesman. Having a team would be helpful these days, however, as the number of calls has increased lately -- a trend Gordon contributes to media portrayal of stories involving the inexplicable.

"You don't have as much ridicule," he says. "The media is much more neutral about sightings."

However, because a stigma remains attached to people who claim to see something inexplicable, many witnesses prefer to remain anonymous and out of the public eye. And most of what they saw, after all, is easily explained.

"Any phenomenon that may seem unusual on the surface is often something natural or man-made," Gordon says.

Oftentimes, the bright orb people see in the sky is a planet, commonly Venus, or a star.

"Venus can appear very bright depending on the atmospheric conditions," Gordon says. "It is surrounded by a cloud layer that makes it look like it's moving or following you"

Other common confusion causers are bolides, bright meteors that are visible in daylight and are often accompanied by an audible "boom" even if they are thousands of miles away. Other times, UFO sightings turn out to be space debris.

In December, Gordon received a report of bright lights moving in a zigzag pattern in Westmoreland County. Upon inspection, he found that the source were searchlights used at the grand opening of a car dealership. Sometimes, it's a weather balloon or helicopter searchlights.

Other sightings don't offer an obvious explanation, however. In Sewickley last June, two people saw two umbrella top-shaped objects moving close together in the sky. They moved against the wind over the Ohio River and made no noise.

On Aug. 24, 2005, in Irwin, a witness reported a bright ball of light in the sky which moved back and forth, in a pattern similar to a windshield wiper movement.

A witness in Bridgeville in December 2006 reported seeing a fast-moving, circular object with lights on it above Route 50. The object dipped down, hovered above his car, then quickly disappeared.

"With the majority of cases, you can figure out an explanation. But every year, there are cases that can't be explained," Gordon says.

When calls come in reporting Big Foot sightings, common culprits are bears. The big animals often drag their feet closely together when walking and in snowy conditions and their footprints can melt together to form one huge print.

When calls come in en masse, it's usually the real deal, says Gordon. In 1973, a wave of Big Foot sightings flooded his phone line.

Several witnesses from around Greensburg, none of whom knew each other or lived near each other, reported seeing an 8-foot-tall man-like creature, many in daylight and many at close range. All reported smelling something horrible, like burnt sulfur.

"There were definitely a few hoaxes, but most were very sincere people," he says. "It developed into a major event."

To this day, no reason has been given for the strange sightings.

In addition to explanations of unusual events, Gordon also has developed a pretty good idea of what traits the actual anomaly has. Big Foot, along with the bad smell, often is reported to have glowing eyes and long arms. Witnesses often report hearing a baby crying when they see one, which Gordon believes is the way Big Foots communicate. Farm animals will always avoid an area where a Big Foot recently treaded, he says.

UFOs sightings, which have been on the rise around Pittsburgh, often are linked to power outages. The crafts frequently appear to be cigar-shaped and make no sound.

"I feel at least a small percentage of cases could be extraterrestrial space crafts or another unknown phenomena, like time travelers," Gordon says.

"With the Big Foot calls, I've seen the evidence. But skeptics asked why, if we've been sighting them for years, has no one shot one, found any bones, or hit one with their car, and I agree."

Depending on how it's used, technology can either hurt or help Gordon's research.

"Because of cell phones, it's a lot easier to make something up," he says. "But you can tell when someone's not being legit. You ask them a couple questions and find that their story has no consistency, no details, no evidence or something just doesn't fit."

Another area of interest for Gordon is the crash of an unidentified object in Kecksburg, Pa. On Dec. 9, 1965, a large, metallic, acorn-shaped object crashed into a wooded area 40 miles from Pittsburgh.

To this day, no one knows what the object was, or what happened to it once military personnel were seen hauling it away. Gordon published a documentary on the subject in 1998.

While Gordon has never experienced a UFO or Big Foot encounter firsthand, he believes all those unexplained stories have to have a real cause, even if it isn't of this world.

"It sounds like science fiction," he says with a smile. "But it isn't."

Local unexplained events

Stan Gordon has heard unusual reports from all over southwestern Pennsylvania. Here are just a few unexplained highlights from past years: