UFOs

An unidentified flying object; a (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins.

Although for centuries man had been seeing strange sights in the skies, it was during the late 1940s and early 1950s that public interest in UFOs became something like an international mania. So much so that in 1953 the United States Government set up a Scientific Advisory Panel on the subject, which rather to its own surprise found that none of its members "were loath to accept that this earth might be visited by extraterrestrial intelligent beings of some sort" although they did not find evidence that any "flying saucers" so far sighted were in fact connected with space travel.

Several million people all over the world believe that they have seen inexplicable shapes or lights in the sky; and a great number of them believe that these are spaceships controlled by intelligent beings from outside the solar system — probably even outside the galaxy.

The hundreds of sightings or alleged sightings of UFOs cover an enormous range of experience from coolly observed, simple phenomena reported by people who have no interest in the supernatural, to accounts by those who claim they have been captured by spacemen descending from space-capsules. Women have claimed to have been impregnated by spacemen; men have told of being forced to have intercourse with spacewomen, or of having sperm samples extracted by strange devices.

A great number of books have been published in which the writers have advanced their own theories about UFOs. Erich von Däniken, the most famous (or notorious) of these, attempts to show in his 'Chariots of the Gods?' that spaceships were observed by the people of Mesopotamia thousands of years ago; C. G. Jung believed that "flying saucers" are a manifestation of the human desire for peace and harmony.

The most rational look at UFOs was taken by a team set up in 1966 by the University of Colorado under the direction of Dr. Edward U. Condon, a former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and financed by the American Air Force. The team had access to a very large file of alleged UFO sightings which had been collected since 1952 by the USAF in what was called Project Blue Book.

The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects was submitted to the Secretary of the Air Force in 1968, and remains by far the most comprehensive examination of the subject. It concluded that there was no hard evidence to suggest the UFOs came from space; but admitted that there were some reports which remained impossible to explain in rational terms, and suggested that serious scientific study of the subject should continue. This has never happened, although President Jimmy Carter suggested it to NASA (having himself seen what he believed to be a "flying saucer" in Georgia, in 1969).

It is obviously impossible to evaluate sightings made in historical times: we have no means of knowing just what the ancients saw when they spoke of wheels of fire, fiery serpents, flaming crosses or simply "discs" — although there are some graphic descriptions in ancient literature of what seem very like some modern notions of inter-planetary space-ships. For example, take the prophet Ezekiel, who lived in exile in Babylon circa 586 BC, and right at the beginning of his Book, seems to describe a vehicle that corresponds to some of those reported more recently:

"I looked up and saw a storm coming from the north. Lightning was flashing from a huge cloud, and the sky round it was glowing. Where the lightning was flashing, something shone like bronze.... There was something that looked like a blazing torch, constantly moving. The fire would blaze up and shoot out flashes of lightning.... I saw four wheels touching the ground ... each one had another wheel intersecting it at right angles, so that the wheels could move in any of the four directions.... There was something that looked like a dome made of dazzling crystal..."

Modern writers such as Erich von Däniken and Robert K. G. Temple have constructed interesting theories based on ancient texts or drawings — the Biblical "pillar of fire" in Exodus, the star of Bethlehem, the "fiery chariots" and angels of the Bible have all been claimed as UFOs, as have reports of burning shields described by Pliny in 100 BC, and a spacecraft said (by Gervase of Tillbury) to have anchored itself to an English church steeple in 1270 (a spaceman emerged, but died in earth's atmosphere). The astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1743) reported an inexplicable subject he saw in the sky in 1716, which seemed to re-fuel itself in flight. More recently, the so-called Miracle of Portugal which took place in 1917 has been explained as a UFO mistaken for the Virgin Mary. However, not all ancient sightings are clearly tall stories; nor are they necessarily simply cases of such phenomena as ball-lightning. And not all modern reports are the products of hoaxes or hysteria — although there are many delightfully ingenious cases of fake photography — UFOs which have turned out to be models thrown into the air or suspended from wires, hand-held cut-outs illuminated by flashlights, drawings superimposed on photographic prints, reflections photographed through clear glass.

The McMinnville saucer was no model, and there was never any suggestion that Mr. and Mrs. Trent would have been capable of faking a photographic negative. A United States Air Force Committee examined the photographs in great technical detail, went to McMinnville, checked every aspect of the story and concluded firmly that "this is one of the few UFO reports in which all factors investigated — geometric, psychological and physical — appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of meters in diameter and evidently artificial, flew within sight of two witnesses. It cannot be said that the evidence positively rules out a fabrication, although there are some physical factors such as the accuracy of certain photometric measures of the original negatives which argue against a fabrication. " Since this conclusion was reached, the photographic negatives, computer-enhanced, have been re-examined, and their genuineness seems beyond question. The McMinnville case is not the only convincing one although the photographs are by far the most concrete evidence available. Many men and women who had much to lose by insisting that they had seen an object from outer space, have stuck to their stories despite enormous pressure and — sometimes — loss of promotion or even of their jobs. Both civil and military pilots have been among them — as have trained astronauts.

Although many scientists close their minds securely against any suggestion that UFOs may have come from outer space, it is now generally accepted that some very strange sights have been seen. In 1969 Cornell University held a symposium on UFO phenomena, organized by two astronomers, Thornton Page and Carl Sagan, under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One of the most interesting papers was given by a sociologist, Robert L. Hall , who having pointed out the possibility of "hysterical contagion" (which no doubt has been responsible for the wilder anecdotes of those who claim capture by little green men) concluded that it could not have been responsible for such a widespread world pattern of UFO sightings, and that if UFOs were not real, either social scientists or physicists had much to explain.

Carl Sagan himself appeared not to deny that something curious was going on; but did not believe that UFOs could come from other civilizations in the universe (although he conceded that there was probably intelligent life on a number of other planets). However, his argument depended on the supposition that earth's scientists know everything there is to be known about the possibility of inter-stellar travel, which may not be so.

The verdict on UFOs remains open. Although some scientists suggest that the great distance between our solar system and the nearest celestial objects which could possibly support life is too great for travel between them to be possible, others take the view that man may not yet be aware of every physical force in the universe, and that space-travel using some form of presently unknown energy might be possible. It is certainly true that a minority of properly recorded UFO sightings remains inexplicable. See Alien, Alien Abduction, Alien Autopsy, Men in Black, Area 51, Exobiology, Flying Saucer and Fortean Phenomena.

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