UFO sightings and theories have suddenly come back into fashion after the MOD released secret files...

Aliens from outer space could have been visiting us for years! The Ministry of Defence has released archives going back to 1978, detailing hundreds of unexplained sightings in British skies. The MOD files show that UFOs come in all shapes and sizes. Any aliens spotted were usually green.

This reminded me of something very strange that happened to me when I was eleven. I was walking home from school with my little sister and our neighbour. It was about four in the afternoon on a sunny day when we saw an amazing object in the sky. The three of us stood on a little railway bridge staring in wonder at the giant shimmering circle of twinkly red lights in the sky. We knew it wasn't the Sun - because that was in another part of the sky. Although it was stationery, the thing seemed to have ocean-like red waves. We must have stood there for at least twenty minutes.

The strangest thing of all about this story was that all three of us forgot all about what had happened until weeks later. We hadn't spoken about it to each other, our parents or anyone else, until one of us (can't remember who) said "Hey, what about that huge sun-like thing the other day!?" We were all baffled as to why we hadn't mentioned it or apparently even thought about until weeks later.

I joked that maybe we had been abducted or brainwashed by beings from another world, but now I'm the editor of Prediction, I'm thinking. "hmm, maybe not such a far-fetched idea?" Even now I think it was one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen.

Are there two of you.. one thinking and one watching yourself think?

When I was at yoga a couple of days ago, we were doing some relaxation exercises to wind us down after our stretches. "Just watch as your thoughts go by", said yoga teacher lady, intending this to be a calming exercise. And somehow we know how to do this, to watch your thoughts go by without getting too involved with them. See them, but don't get into them, watch them float past your mind.

But if you think about it, if you can watch your thoughts, then there has to be two of you right? One of you thinking the thoughts, and another watching you thinking them. The more I thought about this the more interesting it became, probably not the effect the yoga teacher had intended...

Lucid dreaming is when you realise you're dreaming and can do anything you want... fly, travel through time or meet your spirit guides!

A lucid dream happens when you 'wake up' in a dream and realise you're dreaming. It's a wonderful feeling because you can then dream about anything you want. You can also do things like ask for your spirit guides to appear, then ask them questions and they can answer, and because you're lucid, you'll remember what they said the next day.

How do you become lucid? Here's our trusted Prediction trick. Draw the letter 'd' (for 'dreaming) somewhere on your hand in the morning. Then for the rest of the day, every time you look at it, say to yourself, "Am I dreaming?" Obviously the answer will be 'no.' But keep doing this throughout the day.

The idea is that when you do eventually go to sleep and have a dream that your mind will cast over the day's events and, because it was a break from your usual routine, will pick up on the hand-looking stuff, you'll remember asking yourself, "Am I dreaming?", but when you think of this question in your dream, you'll be able to say, "Yes, I am dreaming!". The realisation that you are dreaming, will actually wake you up a bit, hopefully, to enjoy a lucid dream.

Give it a go and let us know how you get on. What have your experiences of lucid dreams been like? We'd love to know - share them here!