As a conspiracy theorist by nature, Candice has spent her life delving deeper into the unknown, the unimaginable and the questionable. “My friends say I’m obsessed with all things conspiracy, paranormal, and ultra top secret.”

“What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?” Sir Winston Churchill - July 1952

Recent UFO crash in Kazakhstan

Its 3am on May 13 2009, Vladimir Bychkov, a farmer in the village of Razdolne in West Kazakhstan is working in his fields. All at once, he spots three luminous objects emitting red and green sparks falling from the sky.

According to Interfax, Russia’s government news agency, the farmer alerted other villagers and they located the objects in the fields. The perfectly spherical objects were about 60cm in diameter - silvery, hot to touch and made of a substance they were not familiar with. When the curious villagers tried to chip the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) with a chisel, colourful sparks flew out, but to their astonishment they were unable to mark the objects in any way.

Shortly after, emergency services and police arrived at the scene and began their formal investigations, and now the story is being reported in over fifty news outlets.

Files released on UFO sightings

Secret files on UFO sightings have been made available for the first time by the Ministry of Defence. The documents, which can be downloaded from the National Archives website, cover the period from 1978 to 1987. They include accounts of strange lights in the sky and unexplained objects being spotted by the public, armed forces and police officers.

The eight files already released are part of almost 200 files set to be made available over the next four years, and will be available to download for free for the first month. A spokesman for the National Archives said they were now becoming available after several requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, and also because of a proactive move by the Ministry of Defence for an open and transparent government.

South Africa’s very own abductee

Elizabeth Klarer, one of our fellow countrymen, claimed to have been contacted by extra-terrestrials between 1954 and 1963, and was one of the first women to claim a sexual relationship with an extra-terrestrial.

Born in Mooi River, Natal, in 1910, she studied meteorology and music in England, and learned to fly light aircraft. On 17 July 1955 in the Drakensberg Mountains, she took photographs of a friendly space alien named Akon and his spaceship.

She later went on board his ship on 7 April 1956. She was carried up to the mother ship in earth orbit, and was eventually transported in 1957 to Akon’s home planet, Meton, orbiting in the nearby multiple-star system Alpha Centauri. It was here that Klarer and Akon had sex, she became pregnant and delivering a male child. Her son, Ayling, stayed behind on Meton to be educated, while Klarer came home. The whole process - trip, lovemaking, pregnancy, delivery and return trip - supposedly took less than four months.

Klarer took far more time before publishing a book, Beyond the Light Barrier (1980), about her extra-terrestrial adventures. She died in 1994.

Area 51

We’ve all heard of it, some of us believe it exists, while others are skeptical. However, less than 100 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada, is the most famous secret military installation on the planet. Though it’s known by many names, most people call it the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) designation: Area 51.

The intense secrecy surrounding the base, the very existence of which the US government barely acknowledges, has led it to become the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component to UFO folklore. The name alone inspires thoughts of government conspiracies, secret black aircraft and alien technologies.

Facts, myths and legends weave together in such a way that it can become difficult to separate reality from fiction. What exactly goes on in this installation? Why did the government alternatively acknowledge and deny its existence until the 1990s? Why is the airspace over it so restricted that even military aircraft are forbidden from flying through it?

Record number of UFO sightings in 2009

A record 231 UFO sightings have been reported to Britain’s Ministry of Defence since January this year. The figures have put 2009 as the record year on the list for spotting mysterious hovering objects. ‘This is sensational. We are now on target for a record year,’ British tabloid The Sun quoted former MoD UFO investigator Nick Pope as saying.

Pope, who worked on the MoD’s UFO desk for three years, said that the increase in reports was due to it being easier to photograph proof’. “Most people have a mobile, which can take pictures or film. Before, people feared being ridiculed,” he said.