The UFO Phenomenon
The UFO phenomenon is the quintessential modern paranormal experience. At least in the media, coverage and interest in UFO reports far outstrip any other type of phenomena, and with good reason. It’s difficult to quantify such a nebulous thing as experiences with the paranormal, but a National Geographic survey from 2012 reported that 36% of Americans believed that UFOs exist, and 10% of those surveyed claimed to have seen one. UFOs captured the collective imagination of the entire world in the 90s, with popular media like The X-Files kicking off a whole host of pop-culture references in movies and TV.
Today, the fact of existence of UFOs has reached a level of cultural acceptance that would have been completely unthinkable in decades past. Even world governments are openly admitting that they have had extensive investigations into the subject, and are releasing their files, or at least some of them.
In the last few years, leaks and deliberate releases from the US Department of Defense have, in some ways, completely blown the lid off the topic, to the point that even the mainstream media are covering it.
If you follow the topic, you’re no doubt aware of the “Tic-Tac” UFO footage. This actually consists of three separate videos, entitled “FLIR”, “GIMBAL”, and “GOFAST.” The FLIR footage was recorded by Navy pilots from the USS Nimitz air wing in 2004, using a forward-looking infrared camera aboard an F-18 fighter, as the title suggests. The GIMBAL and GOFAST films were similarly recorded by Navy pilots aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2014 and 2015. The New York Times published the FLIR and GIMBAL films in 2017, and the Washington Post published the GOFAST footage in 2018. The Navy transparently regarded the incidents as anomalous, and it’s hard to deny there is something there.
Since then, The Warzone has done a fairly admirable job of covering the developing story of US military encounters with UFOs.
If it wasn’t 2024, I might be tempted to insert an exhortation to try to convince anyone who still doesn’t think that UFOs are a real phenomenon. It used to be that the front line of the UFO argument was, “Is it actually real?” As in, “Are all these people actually seeing things, or are they just nuts?”, with the implication being, “Yes, all these people are simply insane.”
Well, in this day and age, if you still believe that nothing is out there and all UFO sightings are just the rantings of disturbed individuals...I’ve got nothing for you. I just don’t really care. As far as I’m concerned, that argument is done and gone.
There is, however, an interesting point that needs clarification here. Many people, when asked a question like “Do you believe in UFOs?”, or “Are UFOs real?”, take the question as “Do you believe there are aliens from another planet flying around in our atmosphere?”. So naturally, many answer no. This tends to cloud the issue, and is an important point.
The phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects flying around is NOT the same thing as the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, which states that yes, the explanation for UFOs is aliens from somewhere else in the universe.
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UFOs categorically exist. For my purposes, I will define UFO as literally that—anything you see flying through the air, and don’t know what it is, is a UFO. I’m aware that official definitions sometimes equate the term UFO with “flying saucers”, but I take issue with that idea because it tends to muddle the issue. So, per my definition, if you see lights in the sky at night, you may assume based on location and behavior that it is an airliner, and odds are you’re probably right—but strictly speaking, if you don’t have absolute factual knowledge that it is in fact an airliner, then technically it’s a UFO. That’s a bit of an extreme example, but the principle is solid. In light of this point, it’s important to recognize the simple truth that a large percentage of reported UFOs are almost certainly ordinary objects. The list of possible mundane explanations is nigh-endless: aircraft, missiles, drones, spacecraft or parts thereof, satellites, etc. etc. etc.
Nevertheless, I maintain that this leaves significant numbers of sightings that are genuinely unexplainable.
My mention of the extraterrestrial hypothesis raises the first of the two ultimate questions about the UFO phenomenon. What the heck are they?
Well, the raw truth is that we don’t know. There are dozens of possible explanations that have been put forward, but the fact is, no one really knows. There are certainly things we do know for a fact—but there are many, many more that we just don’t, and maybe never will. And because of that, none of the hypotheses can remotely be considered proven. Soon, I will be following up extensively on this specific topic: how much can you really know about something like UFOs, and what does it all mean?
Don’t get me wrong here, I definitely have my own opinion(s) about what UFOs really are, and we will absolutely get to that, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself yet.
Of the various theories about the nature of UFOs, the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, sometimes abbreviated as ETH, is probably the most well-known, considering that it does get confused with the actual concept of UFOs existing at all. A distinguishing feature of the ETH is that, on occasions when entities associated with UFOs speak about themselves, they often claim to be extraterrestrials who have traveled to Earth from somewhere else in the physical universe.
Mainstream science has, of course, advanced numerous theories on the origins of the objects we see in the atmosphere, attempting to explain them as natural or otherwise scientifically explicable phenomena. This is formally known as the Psychosocial Hypothesis (PSH). This theory is interesting in that while it is essentially a form of debunking, supporters at least acknowledge that UFOs are interesting and worthy of study. In addition to the various external explanations offered for UFOs, such as fata morgana, ball lightning, distant headlights, earth lights, or plasma phenomenon, the PSH also prominently examines various possible mental aspects of UFO encounters, such as dreams, hallucinations, distortions of perception, and even possibly psi phenomena or the “collective unconscious”.
Famous paranormal researcher John Keel, after extensive experience investigating UFO encounters and other related phenomena such as the Men in Black, settled on referring to UFOs and associated entities as “ultraterrestrials,” theorizing that UFOs are not from outer space, but are instead native to other dimensions, and capable of moving in and out of our world at will. This is known generally as the Interdimensional Hypothesis, and in addition to Keel, has been supported by such well-known researchers as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee.
The view that UFOs and other associated experiences are actually metaphysical or spiritual in nature is also very popular. UFO experiences frequently have one or more elements in common with religious or ecstatic experiences. The Metaphysical Hypothesis shares with the ETH the element that experiences are often framed by the entities involved in spiritual or religious terms. There is sometimes so much overlap between UFO and religious experiences, in fact, that they can easily be interpreted either way, depending on one’s inclinations. For instance, the Miracle of Fatima in 1916 was heavily religious in tone, but could easily be viewed as a UFO experience.
There are, of course, other formal hypotheses out there, such as the Time Travel Hypothesis, but these are the most important, most widely accepted ones. I will discuss other theories by exception, as relevant to cases we discuss in the future.
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The thing about the UFO field that makes it so difficult to properly address is that it’s so broad, deep, and interconnected. It’s nearly impossible to isolate just one aspect of the phenomenon, as I have attempted here, when there are so many more aspects of it that are fundamentally inseparable. The abduction experience will immediately leap to mind for most, but there are also the contactee phenomenon, the “close encounter” categories, Men in Black, and a whole host of other related experiences.
I am not a hard-and-fast advocate of any of the formal hypotheses. Each has its merits and drawbacks, even the psychosocial hypothesis. I would venture to say that each is probably correct in some cases, and incorrect in others. If you’re not into UFOs, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the UFO phenomenon is complex. Really, really, insanely complex, to the point that it’s a stretch to even put them all into a category together.
Going forward, we will examine in depth the merits and drawbacks of each of these theories in light of the evidence we have available, and gradually we will try to come to some semblance of a coherent position on the question of “What are they?” and “What do they want?”