The lunatics are overrunning the asylum again . . .

The Telegraph reports that a French village fears being overrun by moonbats in hot pursuit of mythical UFO's, space aliens and other nonexistent hobgoblins.

Bugarach, population 189, is a peaceful farming village in the Aude region, southwestern France and sits at the foot of the Pic de Bugarach, the highest mountain in the Corbières wine-growing area.

The village of Bugarach (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

But in the past few months, the quiet village has been inundated by groups of esoteric outsiders who believe the peak is an "alien garage".

According to them, extraterrestrials are quietly waiting in a massive cavity beneath the rock for the world to end, at which point they will leave, taking, it is hoped, a lucky few humans with them.

Most believe Armageddon will take place on December 21, 2012, the end date of the ancient Maya calendar, at which point they predict human civilisation will come to an end. Another favourite date mentioned is 12, December, 2012. They see Bugarach as one of perhaps several "sacred mountains" sheltered from the cataclysm.

"This is no laughing matter," Jean-Pierre Delord, the mayor, told The Daily Telegraph.

"If tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities of our concerns and want the army to be at hand if necessary come December 2012."

Mr Delord said people had been coming to the village for the past 10 years or so in search of alien life following a post in an UFO review by a local man, who has since died. "He claimed he had seen aliens and heard the humming of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said.

The internet abounds with tales of the late President François Mitterrand being curiously heliported on to the peak, of mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis and later Mossad, the Israeli secret services.

A visit to Bugarach is said to have inspired Steven Spielberg in his film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind – although the actual mountain he used is Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It is also where Jules Verne found the entrance and the inspiration for A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Recently, however, interest in the site had skyrocketed, said the mayor, with online UFO websites, many in the US, advising people to seek shelter in Bugarach as the countdown to Armageddon commences.

"Many come and pray on the mountainside. I've even seen one man doing some ritual totally nude up there," said Mr Delord.

Sigrid Benard, who runs the Maison de la Nature guesthouse, said UFO tourists were taking over. "At first, my clientele was 72 per cent ramblers. Today, I have 68 per cent 'esoteric visitors'," he said.

Several "Ufologists" have bought up properties in the small hamlet of Le Linas, in the mountain's shadow for "extortionate" prices, and locals have complained they are being priced out of the market. Strange sect-like courses are held for up to €800 a week. "For this price, you are introduced to a guru, made to go on a procession, offered a christening and other rubbish, all payable in cash," said Mr Delord.

There's more at the link.

I suspect that modern antipathy towards religion is at the root of the hysterical desire to find something - anything! - in which to believe in its place. As G. K. Chesterton is reputed to have said (although some dispute his authorship), "When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything." The idiocy of the crowd of UFO-hunting moonbats descending on poor Bugarach is, to me, convincing evidence that he was right! There are many sources on the Internet revealing the depths of their self-delusion. Here's one, just as an example, and here's another.

I can only repeat what I've said before: there isn't a single shred of evidence to make anyone in his or her right mind believe that UFO's are evidence of an alien presence among us, or even an alien presence among the stars. There is no evidence whatsoever to support such a theory. That being the case, I can only hope that the idiots who spend so much time, energy and money pursuing it may soon come to their senses, and stop wasting their breath and our time with such nonsense.

(On the other hand, if a few friends would like to come in on the project with me, I reckon we can fake an alien 'garage' beneath a local mountain in fairly convincing fashion. Now, if we can buy up the land surrounding it on the cheap, and sell it at exorbitant prices to credulous moonbats . . . hmmm . . . this has possibilities!)



Peter