Ufology ( ) is a
neologism coined to describe the collective
efforts of those who study
unidentified flying object (UFO)
reports and associated evidence. While ufology does not represent
an academic field of research, UFOs have been subject to various
investigations over the years by governments and independent
academics. None of these studies have officially concluded that any
reports are caused by extraterrestrial spacecraft (e.g., Seeds
1995:A4). Some studies were neutral in their conclusions, but
argued the inexplicable core cases called for continued scientific
study. However, "the vast majority of UFOs that have been
scrutinized by qualified investigators turn out to have rather
mundane explanations".
Background and status as a field
Ufology has not widely been embraced by academia as a scientific
field of study even though it was, in the early days, the subject
of large-scale scientific studies that produced reports described
to follow.
In August 2008, the University of
Melbourne
offered Martin Plowman its first degree in ufology
.
Ufologists vary from
fringe science
proponent
David Icke to respected
mainstream scientists like
Peter
A. Sturrock,
J. Allen Hynek,
Jacques Fabrice Vallee,
James E. McDonald, and
Auguste Meessen, some of whom argue that UFO
reports are as worthy of study as any topic and deserve
case-by-case analysis using the
scientific method.
Debunkers include
Philip
Klass and
Donald Menzel.
Not all ufologists believe that UFOs are necessarily
extraterrestrial spacecraft or even that they are objective
physical phenomena and even those UFO cases that are exposed as
hoaxes, or found to be delusions or misidentifications may still be
worthy of serious study from a
psychosocial point of view.
Carl Sagan was quite skeptical of any
extraordinary answer to the UFO question, but in 1969, he
co-organised a
symposium on the subject,
thinking that science had unfairly neglected the UFO question.
However, Westrum wrote that "Sagan spent very little time
researching UFOs...he thought that little evidence existed to show
that the UFO phenomenon represented alien spacecraft and that the
motivation for interpreting UFO observations as spacecraft was
emotional." Sagan's college classmate
Stanton T. Friedman criticized Sagan for ignoring
evidence, such as "600-plus UNKNOWNS of
Project Blue Book
Special Report No. 14." Friedman refers to a table in
Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 that he
says "shows that the better the quality of the sighting, the more
likely it was to be an 'unknown,' and the less likely it was to be
listed as 'insufficient information'" (p. 42). Friedman argued
that this empirical data directly contradicts Sagan's claim in
Other Worlds, that the "reliable cases are uninteresting
and the interesting cases are unreliable. Unfortunately there are
no cases that are both reliable and interesting."
In her critique of the
Condon Report,
Diana Palmer Hoyt notes that:
(see external links below)
Along these lines,
Peter A.
Sturrock suggests that UFO studies
should be compartmentalized into at least "the following distinct
activities:"
Study of
UFO sightings has yielded results applicable to other
fields, such as in weather phenomena (see Hessdalen
) and in human perception, such as the study lead by
the SOBEPS for the Belgian flap in 1989-90 or
the studies of the GEPAN/SEPRA in France
.
The lack of acceptance of ufology by mainstream academia as a field
of study means that people can claim to be "UFO researcher",
without the sorts of
scientific
consensus building and, in many cases
peer review, that otherwise shape and influence
scientific
paradigms. This has allowed many
to stake out territory and disseminate claims, information and
analysis of widely varying rigor and quality.
Some ufologists, such as Stanton Friedman (2008), consider the
general attitude of mainstream academics as arrogant and
dismissive, or bound to a rigid
world
view that disallows any evidence contrary to previously held
notions. Others charge that Ufology evidence is a classic case of
pathological science.
Astronomer and ufologist
J. Allen Hynek's famous comment regarding this
subject is, "
Ridicule is not part of the scientific method and people should not be
taught that it is." Another comment by Hynek regarding the
frequent dismissal of UFO reports by astronomers was, "
Close
questioning revealed they knew nothing of the actual sightings, of
their frequency or anything much about them, and therefore cannot
be taken seriously. This is characteristic of scientists
in general when speaking about subjects which are not in their own
immediate field of concern."
Critics like
Robert Sheaffer have
accused ufology of having a "credulity explosion." He claims a
trend of increasingly sensational ideas steadily gaining popularity
within ufology. Sheaffer remarked "the kind of stories generating
excitement and attention in any given year would have been rejected
by mainstream ufologists a few years earlier for being too
outlandish."
Likewise, James McDonald has expressed the view that extreme groups
undermined serious scientific investiation, stating that a "bizarre
"literature" of pseudo-scientific discussion" on "spaceships
bringing messengers of terrestrial salvation and occult truth" had
been "one of the prime factors in discouraging serious scientists
from looking into the UFO matter to the extent that might have led
them to recognize quickly enough that cultism and wishful thinking
have nothing to do with the core of the UFO problem." In the same
statement, McDonald said that :
- "Again, one must here criticize a good deal of
armchair-researching (done chiefly via the daily newspapers that
enjoy feature-writing the antics of the more extreme of such
subgroups). A disturbing number of prominent scientists have jumped
all too easily to the conclusion that only the nuts see UFOs."
UFO researchers
The Air Force's
Project Blue Book
files indicate that approximately 1% of all their reports came from
amateur and professional astronomers or other users of telescopes
(such as missile trackers or surveyors). In the 1970s,
astrophysicist
Peter A. Sturrock conducted two surveys of the
American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
American Astronomical Society.
About 5% of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO
sightings.
[47542] [47543] In 1980, a survey of 1800 members of various
amateur astronomer associations by Gert Herb and astronomer
J. Allen
Hynek of the
Center for UFO
Studies (CUFOS) found that 24% responded "yes" to the question
"Have you ever observed an object which resisted your most
exhaustive efforts at identification?"
Astronomer
Clyde Tombaugh, who
admitted to 6 UFO sightings, including 3
green fireballs supported the
Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) for UFOs and stated he thought
scientists who dismissed it without study were being
"unscientific." Another astronomer was Dr.
Lincoln LaPaz, who had headed the Air Force's
investigation into the green fireballs and other UFO phenomena in
New Mexico. LaPaz reported 2 personal sightings, one of a green
fireball, the other of an anomalous disc-like object. Even later
UFO debunker Dr.
Donald Menzel filed
a UFO report in
1949 .
Physicists and UFOs
Certain physicists, some working for the US Military, others said
to be associated with the
US Intelligence
Community are seriously interested in UFOs as extraterrestrial
flying machines. Dr.
Jack Sarfatti, in
his book "Super Cosmos" (2005), has an extremely detailed "theory"
based on the recent discovery of the
repulsive anti-gravity field "
dark
energy" that is accelerating the expansion of the
3D space of our universe. Sarfatti
also cites Alcubierre's
weightless
warp drive without
time dilation as essential conditions for
"propellantless propulsion" in what Puthoff has called "metric
engineering." In his book "The Physics of Star Trek,"
Lawrence M. Krauss argues that it would be physically
impossible to concentrate enough energy in one place to "warp" the
fabric of space.
According to other physicists, taking advantage of certain
experimentally verified quantum phenomena, such as the
Casimir effect, may make the construction of
Alcubierre type
warp drives theoretically possible. However, if
certain
quantum inequalities
conjectured by Ford and Roman (1996) hold, then the energy
requirements for some warp drives may be absurdly gigantic, e.g.
the energy equivalent of -10
67g might be required to
transport a small spaceship across the Milky Way galaxy.
Counterarguments to these apparent problems have been offered
(Krasnikov, 2003), but not all physicists are convinced they can be
overcome. (For a detailed discussion, see:
Alcubierre drive.)
Studies
Various public scientific studies over the past half century have
examined UFO reports in detail. Governments or independent
academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France,
Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are
known to have investigated UFO reports at various times. Perhaps
the best-known study was
Project Blue
Book, previously
Project Sign and
Project Grudge, conducted by the
United States Air Force from
1947 until 1969. Other notable investigations include the
Robertson Panel (1953), the
Brookings Report (1960), the
Condon Committee (1966–1968), the Project
Twinkle investigation into
green
fireballs (1948–1951), the
Sturrock Panel (1998), and the French
GEIPAN (1977-) and
COMETA (1996–1999) study groups. None of these
studies have officially concluded that any reports are caused by
extraterrestrial spacecraft (e.g., Seeds 1995:A4). Some studies
were neutral in their conclusions, but argued the inexplicable core
cases called for continued scientific study. Examples are the
Sturrock Panel study of 1998 and the 1970
AIAA
review of the
Condon Report. Other
private or governmental studies, some secret, have concluded in
favor of the ETH, or have had members who disagreed with the
official conclusions. The following are examples of such studies
and individuals:
- One of the earliest government studies to come to a secret ETH
conclusion was Project Sign, the first
official Air Force UFO investigation. In 1948, they wrote a
top-secret intelligence
estimate to that effect. The Air Force Chief of Staff ordered it
destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report was revealed by
several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and USAF
consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF's
Project Blue Book. (Ruppelt,
Chapt. 3)
- An early U.S. Army study, of which little is known, was called
the Interplanetary
Phenomenon Unit (IPU). In 1987, British UFO researcher Timothy Good received a letter confirming the
existence of the IPU from the Army Director of
Counter-intelligence, in which it was stated, "...the
aforementioned Army unit was disestablished during the late 1950s
and never reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were
surrendered to the U.S. Air Force Office of
Special Investigations in conjunction with operation BLUEBOOK."
The IPU records have never been released.

November 1948 USAF Top Secret document
citing extraterrestrial opinion
- In 1967, Greek physicist Paul Santorini, a Manhattan Project scientist, publicly
stated that a 1947 Greek government investigation that he headed
into the European Ghost rockets of
1946 quickly concluded that they were not missiles. Santorini
claimed the investigation was then quashed by military officials
from the U.S., who knew them to be extraterrestrial, because there
was no defense against the advanced technology and they feared
widespread panic should the results become public.
- A 1948 Top Secret USAF Europe document (at right) states that
Swedish air intelligence informed them that at least some of their
investigators into the ghost rockets and flying saucers concluded
they had extraterrestrial origins: "...[Flying saucers] have been
reported by so many sources and from such a variety of places that
we are convinced that they cannot be disregarded and must be
explained on some basis which is perhaps slightly beyond the scope
of our present intelligence thinking. When officers of this
Directorate recently visited the Swedish Air Intelligence
Service... their answer was that some reliable and fully
technically qualified people have reached the conclusion that
'these phenomena are obviously the result of a high technical skill
which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth.'
They are therefore assuming that these objects originate from some
previously unknown or unidentified technology, possibly outside the
earth."
- Various European countries conducted a secret joint study in
1954, also concluding that UFOs were extraterrestrial. This study
was revealed by German rocketry pioneer Hermann Oberth, a member of the study, who
also made many public statements supporting the ETH.
- In 1958, Brazil's main UFO investigator, Dr. Olavo T. Fuentes
wrote a letter to the American UFO group APRO
summarizing a briefing he had received from two Brazilian Naval
intelligence officers. Fuentes said he was told that every
government and military on Earth was aware that UFOs were
extraterrestrial craft and there was absolute proof of this in the
form of several crashed craft. The subject was classified Top
Secret by the world's militaries. The objects were deemed dangerous
and hostile when attacked, many planes had been lost, and it was
generally believed that Earth was undergoing an invasion of some
type, perhaps a police action to keep us confined to the planet.
This information had to be withheld from the public by any means
necessary because of the likelihood of widespread panic and social
breakdown.
- During
the height of the flying saucer epidemic of July 1952, including
highly publicized radar/visual and jet intercepts over Washington,
D.C.
, the FBI
was informed by the Air Force Directorate of
Intelligence that they thought the "flying saucers" were either
"optical illusions or atmospheric phenomena" but then added that,
"some Military officials are seriously considering the possibility
of interplanetary ships." FBI
document
- The CIA started their own internal
scientific review the following day. Some CIA scientists were also
seriously considering the ETH. An early memo from August was very
skeptical, but also added, "...as long as a series of reports
remains 'unexplainable' (interplanetary aspects and alien origin
not being thoroughly excluded from consideration) caution requires
that intelligence continue coverage of the subject." A report from later
that month was similarly skeptical but nevertheless concluded
"...sightings of UFOs reported at Los
Alamos
and Oak Ridge
, at a time when the background radiation count had risen inexplicably.
Here we run out of even 'blue yonder' explanations that might be
tenable, and we still are left with numbers of incredible reports
from credible observers." A December 1952 memo from the Assistant
CIA Director of Scientific Intelligence (O/SI) was much more
urgent: "...the reports of incidents convince us that there is
something going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of
unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at highs
speeds in the vicinity of U.S. defense installation are of such
nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known
types of aerial vehicles." Some of the memos also made it clear
that CIA interest in the subject was not to be made public, partly
in fear of possible public panic. (Good,331-335)
- The CIA organized the January 1953 Robertson Panel of scientists to debunk the
data collected by the Air Force's Project Blue Book. This included an
engineering analysis of UFO maneuvers by Blue Book (including a
motion picture film analysis by Naval scientists) that had
concluded UFOs were under intelligent control and likely
extraterrestrial.
- Extraterrestrial "believers" within Project Blue Book including Major Dewey
Fournet, in charge of the engineering analysis of UFO motion.
Director Edward J. Ruppelt is also thought to have held these
views, though expressed in private, not public. Another defector
from the official Air Force party line was consultant Dr. J. Allen Hynek,
who started out as a staunch skeptic. After 20 years of
investigation, he changed positions and generally supported the
ETH. He became the most publicly known UFO advocate scientist in
the 1970s and 1980s.
- The
first CIA Director, Vice Admiral Roscoe H.
Hillenkoetter
, stated in a signed statement to Congress, also
reported in the New York Times,
February 28, 1960,
"It is time for the truth to be brought out... Behind the
scenes high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about
the UFOs. However, through official secrecy and ridicule, many
citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are
nonsense... I urge immediate Congressional action to reduce the
dangers from secrecy about unidentified flying objects." In 1962,
in his letter of resignation from NICAP, he
told director Donald Keyhoe, "I know
the UFOs are not U.S. or Soviet devices. All we can do now is wait
for some actions by the UFOs."
- Although the 1968 Condon Report
came to a negative conclusion (written by Condon), it is known that many members of the
study strongly disagreed with Condon's methods and biases. Most
quit the project in disgust or were fired for insubordination. A
few became ETH supporters. Perhaps the best known example is Dr.
David Saunders, who in his 1968 book UFOs? Yes
lambasted Condon for extreme bias and ignoring or misrepresenting
critical evidence. Saunders wrote, "It is clear... that the
sightings have been going on for too long to explain in terms of
straightforward terrestrial intelligence. It is in this sense that
ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) stands as the `least
implausible' explanation of `real UFOs'."
- Nick Pope, a Higher
Scientific Officer in the UK
MOD who was responsible for the
UK government UFO desk for a number of years, is an advocate of the
ETH based on the inexplicable cases he reviewed, such as the
Rendlesham UFO incident,
although the British government has never made such
claims.
- Jean-Jacques Velasco, the
head of the official French UFO investigation SEPRA, wrote a book
in 2005 saying that 14% of the 5800 cases studied by SEPRA were
utterly inexplicable and extraterrestrial in origin. Yves Sillard, the head of the new official
French UFO investigation GEIPAN and former head of the French space
agency CNES, echoes Velasco's comments and adds
the U.S. is guilty of covering up this information. Again, this
isn't the official public posture of SEPRA, CNES, or the French
government. (CNES recently announced that their 5800 case files
will be placed on the Internet starting March 2007.)
- The 1999 French COMETA committee of high-level military
analysts/generals and aerospace engineers/scientists declared the
ETH was the best hypothesis for the unexplained cases.
Physical evidence
Besides visual sightings, UFO cases sometimes involve direct or
indirect physical evidence. Reports of these are often included in
studies by the military and various government agencies. Direct
physical evidences are rare, and involve actual artifacts coming
from the UFO; indirect evidence, on the other hand, would be data
obtained from afar, such as radar contact and photographs. More
direct physical evidence involves physical interactions with the
environment at close range—Hynek's "close encounter" or Vallee's
"Type-I" cases—which include "landing traces,"
electromagnetic interference,
and physiological/biological effects.
- Actual
hard physical evidence cases, such as 1957, Ubatuba
, Brazil,
magnesium fragments analyzed by the
Brazilian government and in the Condon
Report and by others. The 1964 Socorro/Lonnie Zamora
incident also left metal traces, analyzed by
NASA
. Another example of possible physical
evidence is the "Bob White object" a strange feather shaped object
supposedly recovered by Bob White in 1985. The object was featured
in the popular UFO show UFO Hunters
- Landing physical trace evidence, including ground impressions,
burned and/or desiccated soil, burned and broken foliage, magnetic
anomalies, increased radiation levels, and metallic traces. See,
e.g. Height
611 UFO Incident or the 1964 Lonnie Zamora
's Socorro
, New
Mexico
encounter, considered one of the most inexplicable
of the USAF Project Blue Book
cases). A well-known example from December 1980 was the
USAF Rendlesham Forest Incident in
England. Another less than 2 weeks later, in January 1981, occurred
in Trans-en-Provence and was investigated by GEPAN, then France's official government
UFO-investigation agency. Project Blue
Book head Edward J. Ruppelt described a classic 1952 CE2 case
involving a patch of charred grass roots. Catalogs of several
thousand such cases have been compiled, particularly by researcher
Ted Phillips.
- So-called animal/cattle
mutilation cases, that some feel are also part of the UFO
phenomenon. Such cases can and have been analyzed using forensic science techniques.
- Radar contact and tracking, sometimes from
multiple sites. These are often considered among the best cases
since they usually involve trained military personnel and control
tower operators, simultaneous visual sightings, and aircraft
intercepts. One such recent example were the mass
sightings of large, silent, low-flying black triangle in 1989 and 1990 over
Belgium, tracked by multiple NATO
radar and
jet interceptors, and investigated by Belgium's military (included
photographic evidence). Another famous case from 1986 was
the JAL 1628 case over Alaska
investigated by the FAA.
- Photographic evidence, including still photos, movie film, and
video, including some in the infrared
spectrum (rare).
- Physiological effects on people and animals including temporary
paralysis, skin burns and rashes, corneal
burns, and symptoms superficially resembling radiation poisoning, such as the
Cash-Landrum incident in 1980.
One such case dates back to 1886, a Venezuelan incident reported in
Scientific American
magazine.
- Electromagnetic
interference (EM) effects, including stalled cars, power
black-outs, radio/TV interference, magnetic compass deflections,
and aircraft navigation, communication, and engine disruption.
A list of
over 30 such aircraft EM incidents was compiled by NASA
scientist
Dr. Richard F. Haines. A famous 1976 military case over Tehran
, recorded in
CIA and DIA classified documents,
resulted in communication losses in multiple aircraft and weapons
system failure in an F-4 Phantom II
jet interceptor as it was about to fire a missile on one of the
UFOs. This was also a radar/visual case. (Fawcett &
Greenwood, 81-89; Good, 318-322, 497-502)
- Remote radiation detection, some noted in
FBI
and CIA documents occurring over
government nuclear installations at Los Alamos
National Laboratory
and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
in 1950, also reported by Project Blue Book director Ed Ruppelt in
his book.
- Misc: Recorded electromagnetic emissions, such as microwaves
detected in the well-known 1957 RB-47 surveillance aircraft case,
which was also a visual and radar case; polarization rings observed
around a UFO by a scientist, explained by Dr. James Harder as intense magnetic fields from
the UFO causing the Faraday
effect.
These various reported physical evidence cases have been studied by
various scientist and engineers, both privately and in official
governmental studies (such as
Project
Blue Book, the
Condon
Committee, and the French
GEPAN/SEPRA). A
comprehensive scientific review of physical evidence cases was
carried out by the 1998 Sturrock UFO panel.
Attempts have been made to
reverse
engineer the possible
physics behind
UFOs through analysis of both eyewitness reports and the physical
evidence.
Examples are former NASA
and nuclear
engineer James McCampbell in his book Ufology online, NACA/NASA
engineer
Paul R. Hill in his book
Unconventional Flying
Objects, and German rocketry pioneer
Hermann Oberth. Among subjects tackled by
McCampbell, Hill, and Oberth was the question of how UFOs can fly
at
supersonic speeds without creating a
sonic boom.
McCampbell's proposed
solution of a microwave plasma
parting the air in front of the craft is currently being researched
by Dr. Leik Myrabo, Professor of
Engineering Physics at the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
as a possible advance in hypersonic flight. 1995 Aviation Week article
UFO categorization
Some researchers recommend that observations be classified
according to the features of the phenomenon or object that are
reported or recorded. Typical categories include:
- Saucer, toy-top, or disk-shaped “craft” without visible or
audible propulsion. (day and night)
- Rapidly-moving lights or lights with apparent ability to
rapidly change direction and then suddenly stop, impossible for
conventional aircraft.
- Large triangular “craft” or
triangular light pattern
- Cigar-shaped “craft” with lighted windows (Meteor fireballs are
sometimes reported this way).
- Other: chevrons, equilateral triangles, spheres, domes,
diamonds, shapeless black masses, eggs, and cylinders.
Hynek system
J. Allen
Hynek developed another commonly used system of description,
dividing sightings into six categories. It first separates
sightings into distant- and close-encounter categories, arbitrarily
setting 500 feet as the cutoff point. It then subdivides these
close and distant categories based on appearance or special
features. The three distant-encounter categories are:
- Nocturnal Lights (NL): Anomalous lights seen in the night
sky.
- Daylight Discs (DD): Any anomalous object, generally but not
necessarily “discoidal”, seen in the distant daytime sky.
- Radar/Visual cases (RV). Objects seen simultaneously by eye and
on radar.
Subgroups of the distant category of sightings correlate with
evidentiary value. RV cases are usually considered to have the
highest value because of radar corroboration, whereas NL cases have
the lowest because it is so easy to mistake lights seen at night
for prosaic phenomena such as meteors, bright stars, or aircraft.
RV reports are also fewest in number, while NL are most
common.
Hynek also defined three “
close
encounter” (CE) subcategories:
From UFO
Casebook:
- CE4+: aliens communicate with the observer, even abduct,
experiment on the observers, others. UFO
Casebook lists additional categories, in which the UFO and/or
alien is captured/destroyed by military forces and/or
civilians.
Like the RV cases, CE cases are considered higher in evidentiary
value because they include measurable physical effects, and because
objects seen up close are less likely to be the result of
misperception. Like the RV cases, these tend to be relatively
rare.
Hynek’s CE classification system has since been expanded to include
such things as alleged
alien
abductions and
cattle
mutilation phenomena.
Vallée system
Jacques Vallée has devised a UFO
classification system which is preferred by many UFO investigators
over Hynek’s system as it is considerably more descriptive than
Hynek’s, especially in terms of the reported behavior of
UFOs.
Type - I (a, b,c, d)- Observation of an unusual
object, spherical discoidal, or of another
geometry, on or situated close to the ground (tree
height, or lower), which may be associated with traces - thermal,
luminous, or mechanical effects.
- a - On or near ground.
- b - Near or over body of water.
- c - Occupants appear to display interest in witnesses by
gestures or luminous signals.
- d - Object appears to be “scouting” a terrestrial vehicle.
Type - II (a, b,c) - Observation of an unusual
object with vertical cylindrical formation in the sky, associated
with a diffuse cloud. This phenomenon has been given various names
such as “cloud-cigar” or “cloud-sphere.”
- a - Moving erratically through the sky
- b - Object is stationary and gives rise to secondary objects
(sometimes referred to as “satellite objects”)
- c - Object is surrounded by secondary objects
Type - III (a, b,c, d,e)- Observation of an
unusual object of spherical, discoidal or elliptical shape,
stationary in the sky.
- a - Hovering between two periods of motion with “falling-leaf”
descent, up and down, or pendulum
motion
- b - Interruption of continuous flight to hover and then
continue motion
- c - Alters appearance while hovering - e.g., change of
luminosity, generation of secondary object, etc.
- d - “Dogfights” or swarming among
several objects
- e - Trajectory abruptly altered during continuous flight to fly
slowly above a certain area, circle, or suddenly change course
Type IV (a, b,c, d) - Observation of an unusual
object in continuous flight.
- a - Continuous flight
- b - Trajectory affected by nearby conventional aircraft
- c - Formation flight
- d - Wavy or zig-zag trajectory
Type V (a, b,c)- Observation of an unusual object
of indistinct appearance, i.e., appearing to be not fully material
or solid in structure.
- a - Extended apparent diameter, non-point source luminous objects (“fuzzy”)
- b - Starlike objects (point source), motionless for extended
periods
- c - Starlike objects rapidly crossing the sky, possibly with
peculiar trajectories
Funding issues
Astrophysicist
Peter A. Sturrock suggests that a lack of funding
is a major factor in the institutional disinterest in UFO’s: "If
the
Air Force were to make available,
say, $50 million per year for ten years for UFO research, it is
quite likely that the subject would look somewhat less disreputable
... however, an agency is unlikely to initiate such a program at
any level until scientists are supportive of such an initiative. We
see that there is a chicken-and-egg program. It would be more
sensible, and more acceptable to the scientific community, if
research began at a low level."
Explanations
Hypotheses involving the objective existence of UFOs
These hypotheses speculate that the phenomena derives wholly or in
part from a phenomenon, rather than the mind of the observer.
The extraterrestrial hypothesis
The
extraterrestrial
hypothesis (
ETH) theorizes that some UFO
sightings are
alien spacecraft.
The staging hypothesis
A sub-set of the ETH, the
Staging Hypothesis,
prevalent up until the 1980s, speculated that extraterrestrials
have "stage-managed" encounters as a deliberate policy to "educate"
humanity.
The hostility hypothesis
Wilhelm Reich and
Jerome Eden have the hypothesis that UFOs - or
at least some of them - or the beings traveling in the UFOs - are
hostile. They claim that the
waste product of the UFO
engines is what they call "Deadly
Orgone"
(DOR) which ruins the atmosphere, dries it out, and is one cause,
if not the most important cause, of the development of
deserts. They found this during their operations with
the "
Cloudbuster".
Eden, just like several other researchers, attributes the
Cattle mutilations, cases such as "Snippy
the horse", to aliens, and claims that these beings abduct persons,
manipulate their feelings and thoughts, cause military aircraft to
crash or disappear, but they do not make open contact to government
or military. That they even try to "educate" mankind in the way
that the human beings develop a spiritual attitude towards aliens
and UFOs, hoping that the aliens arrive as the saviors for the big
problems of mankind and earth, when, in fact, their agenda involves
exploiting Earth's natural resources and destroying its water and
atmosphere.
The advanced human aircraft hypothesis
This is a theory that all or some UFO sightings are advanced,
secret or experimental aircraft of earthly origin.
- During the 1980s, there were reports of "black triangle" UFOs. Some of these
were the secret F-117 Nighthawk,
which became known to the public in November 1988.
- Nazi Germany is known to have
experimented with circular jet planes using the Coanda effect. At least one of the scientists
involved was taken to the USA after WWII. Experiments with these designs and their
descendants down the years may explain many sightings of circular
UFOs.
There is a theory that the secret groups developing these aircraft
in the USA, have been encouraging ufology to follow the
Extraterrestrial hypothesis line
of thought, to cover up for sightings.
The Cosmic Trickster and Ultraterrestrial hypothesis
Endorsed by
John Keel (who coined the term
"ultraterrestrial"),
Jacques
Vallée in his
Passport to
Magonia,
Robert Anton
Wilson,
Mac Tonnies and
Terence McKenna, this theory claims that
UFOs have an objective reality, though of a kind
humans cannot comprehend or understand.
A frequent sub-set of this theory conjectures that in the past the
ultimate reality behind UFO is manifested as
angels,
demons,
fairies and other "
supernatural" beings. This over-laps both with
the Staging Hypothesis and the
Psychosocial Hypothesis.
,Cryptoterrestrial hypothesis
Time travel or parallel worlds
Alternately, UFOs are craft that come from a
parallel dimension or similar,
or are human-manufactured craft from the future capable of
time travel.
The "critter" or "sky beast" hypothesis
The theory of
Trevor James
Constable speculated that UFO sightings involve the sighting of
exotic unknown life otherwise known as "Critters" or "
Heat Critters". This theory seems to have some
connections to Constable's interpretations on
Wilhelm Reich's
Orgone
energy.
UFO's as supernatural beings
UFOs as perception or illusion
The mistaken observer hypothesis
This is a theory that most UFO sightings are misunderstood
phenomena such as
ball lightning or
visual illusions. See
Identified Flying Objects .
Psychology
Carl G. Jung, the Swiss
psychoanalyst, in his 1957 work,
Flying
Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies,
explained UFOs as objects of the
collective unconscious and modern
archetypes. In a brief final chapter of
his book, Jung also expressed his opinion that some UFOs could be
real "nuts-and-bolts" of unknown nature.
In
psychology, the study of UFO sightings
has revealed information on misinterpretation, perceptual
illusions,
hallucination . Many have
questioned the reliability of
hypnosis in
UFO abduction cases. .
UFO-related claims that are based solely on eyewitness accounts are
subject to a range of issues that may be involved with
eyewitness memory. Under some
circumstances, eyewitness memory is unreliable. In addition, there
is some evidence that memory of an event can be unconsciously
altered to suit a desired interpretation of what was remembered.
For example, it is possible a person who has reported a UFO
sighting may be reinterpreting an older memory to fit a desired
explanation. One study has reported that participants who reported
recovered memories of abduction by aliens were more prone than a
control group to exhibit false recall.
[47544] However, the authors note as a
limitation, that a small sample size was used in the study. In
addition, the study did not address the alternative hypothesis that
only a subgroup of those who reported abductions could account for
the observed differences; i.e. it is possible some of the group
claiming abduction were more prone to false recall while others
were not.
Psychosocial Hypothesis
The
Psychosocial Hypothesis,
advocated in the early work of
Hilary
Evans, posits that some UFO sightings are
hallucinations or fantasies and are caused by
the same mechanism as various
occult,
paranormal,
supernatural or
religious experiences (compare alleged sightings
of the
Blessed Virgin
Mary).
The Tectonic Strain and electro-staging theories
A number of theorists have concluded that, jointly,
earthquake lights (a somewhat disputed
phenomenon within the mainstream scientific community) and the
effect of natural (and in some cases
artificial electromagnetic radiation) causes
altered states of
consciousness.
UFO organizations
- United States Air Force
Project Blue Book: Small, public
Air Force UFO investigation, from 1952 until discontinued in 1969.
Preceded by Project Sign (1947–1948)
and Project Grudge (1948–1952).
- Aerial
Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) (1952–1988): Early,
national U.S. civilian research organization with many PhD
consulting scientists.
- National
Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena
(NICAP)(1956–1980), Early, national U.S. civilian research
organization, very large and powerful at one time, with many
scientists and military consultants.
- Mutual UFO Network (MUFON):
Large, international, U.S. based civilian research organization
stressing field investigations and data collection. MUFON is the
largest civilian UFO research group in the United States
today.
- Center for UFO Studies
(CUFOS): Founded by Project Blue Book consultant, astronomer and
ufologist J. Allen Hynek; stresses scientific
investigations; large archives, including old NICAP files.
- Fund for UFO Research:
Funds scientific UFO research; many consulting PhD scientists; does
photoanalysis.
- National
Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS): Private, somewhat
clandestine organization with insider government scientists and
military people stressing scientific forensic analysis of UFO and
paranormal phenomena.
- Phenomena Research
Australia (PRA): This group has grew out of the Aeronautical
Research Laboratory – Melbourne, Victoria c1949.
-
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal, (CSICOP), a UFO and paranormal skeptics organization, which
classifies ufology as a pseudoscience
and claims all UFO reports are ultimately explainable as mundane
phenomena or hoaxes. CSICOP is the largest and most prominent group
of UFO skeptics and debunkers in the United States.
- UFO-Norge, a
Norwegian project dedicated to collect all material on observations
and physical traces of UFO activity in Norway
.
- Erich von Däniken's
controversial theories (along with Peter
Kolosimo), where he combines what he considers historical proof
of extraterrestrial visits
with a theory on extraterrestrial help in the evolution of
humanity.
- SOBEPS: Société Belge d'Etude des
Phénomènes Spatiaux(1971–2007). This group gained fame to have
investigated the Belgian Wave (see Black
triangle incidents).
- Karla Turner
- Disclosure Project
- Visión Ovni
Panel discussion on November 12, 2007
On
November 12, 2007,
Former Arizona
Governor Fife
Symington moderated a panel of former high-ranking government,
aviationand military officials from seven countries at the
National Press Club.
Sources
- Sergey Litsak, Explanatory UFO
Dictionary with Equivalents in Russian, English and German.
ETS Publishing House and
Polyglossum, Inc; ISBN 5-86455-063-9.
Dictionary contains 853 articles.
- Roth, Christopher F., "Ufology as Anthropology: Race,
Extraterrestrials, and the Occult." In E.T. Culture:
Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by Debbora Battaglia. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005.
- Peter A. Sturrock; The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical
Evidence; Warner Books, 1999; ISBN 0-446-52565-0
See also
References
External links