Exactly
There was a UFO "flap" in 1952 where lots of UFOs were seen over
Washington, D.C..
Just months earlier the classic SF film The Day the Earth Stood Still
was released to the public, about an alien spacecraft that lands in the
US Capitol.
A few years back I visited Gettysburg, PA with my family. We went on
a "ghost tour", where a guide pointed out various places that have had
reported hauntings. It did not take long at all for the group I was in to
start seeing things whenever and wherever the guide said sightings of
apparations had been made. I did not see anything unusual, but maybe
I am just not tuned into the right interdimensional frequencies.
Never underestimate the power of mass hysteria, as the recent swine
flu hype has shown.