Unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, as they’re fondly
called, are one of the century’s most intriguing and
controversial mysteries. Since ancient times, UFOs of all types
have been accounted for. More today than ever, hundreds of
thinkers, theologians, and scientists have tried to answer why
there are or whether there aren’t UFOs. According to some, the
speculation that UFOs are alien spacecrafts from another world is
an absurd and foolish proposal. Others vehemently disagree
and assert that extraterrestrial life is not only possible, but
such life forms may be superior, technologically advanced beings
who visit our Earth regularly.
Are these “flying saucers” a figment of our imagination?
Or, are they a genuine reality we prefer to dismiss because we
fear the scary truth that we are not the only master race?Are
we hesitant because society dubs such “immature” psycho
tantamount to subscribing to belief in ghosts?These are a few
of the many pertinent UFO questions the mature individual must
address.
One of the most popular theories that support and explains
the existence of alien beings is the ancient astronaut theory.
This theory contains three main schools of thought. The first
states that aliens bred with our primitive forebears thereby
creating modern man. The second is quite similar. Aliens
performed genetic engineering on apes thereby creating the Homo
Sapiens and man’s intelligence. The third, and least accepted,
is that colonists from another galaxy came to Earth, mated with
the primitives and established a high level of culture,
before being destroyed by some natural catastrophe. And upon
this catastrophe and destruction, we build and grow (Fitzgerald
1). Berossus, a Babylonian scholar, may have been the first
astronaut historian. He said that ” animals endowed with
reason” bestowed the Sumerian culture before 3000 BCE. The
Sumerians, along with their cultural inheritors, the Babylonians,
never referred to such beings as gods. Rather they were depicted
as “disgusting abominations,” adescription only deserved by
uninvited alien visitors (2).
One step further takes the astronaut theory and surmises
that with it, we can understand the later religious cultures,
such as the Hebrews who are thought to have borrowed much of
Sumerian practice.Such religions and secret societies,
with their elaborate and complicated rituals may actually be
“preserving from a previous epoch fragments of an esoteric and
little understood knowledge, just as the Egyptian, Hebrew, and
Mayan priests guarded in their temples the inspired word of their
self-possessed creators (3).”Alien originators may have set
down certain rites which became confused over the years,
resulting in the various ancient religions; aliens being the
source of our notion of God.This also may explain how miles
long designs, only viewable from the air, were created in ancient
times. The only rationalization for the possibility of such
designs is that the ancients had assistance from the sky, namely
extraterrestrial assistance. Many UFO theorists, astronomer
Morris Jessup being the forerunner, go even further: not only
were pre-Biblical and Biblical times full of Alien intervention,
but he contends that the UFO phenomenon is the missing link
between Biblical supernatural accounts of miracles and
established, contradicting science. Jessup explains that
“nothing is supernatural and nothing is outside nature (12).”
He continues that the Bible is full of UFO accounts, depicted by
various descriptions: angels, the revelation on Mt. Sinai, the
burning bush, and Elijah’s levitation to heaven. Jessup says
the Bible is a physical record, not a collection of divine
revelation “although the miracles of this and all religions
invite rational and physical explanation, if we grant the
‘existence of spatial intelligence (13).'” Another thinker,
Brinsley Trent, follows the theme of extraterrestrial
interpretations of the Bible and claims that the Garden of Eden
was, as many ancient texts point out, not the underground,
but in the Underworld – i.e. outside the orbit of earth, meaning
Mars. When the Great Flood occurred, Noah built a great “boat,”
a spaceship, and landed on Earth (Life 16).
However, Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan warns that this
ancient astronaut theory and the “saucer myths” represent a
compromise “between the need to believe in a traditional God
and the contemporary pressures to accept the pronouncement of
science (Fitzgerald 5);” therefore, according to Sagan, the
proposition that aliens exist and the astronaut theory should be
tossed.
Many theorists assume the Bible is a totally separate entity
and don’t associate or contradict the UFO phenomenon with the
well established theological belief system in the supernatural.
Wilhelm Reich, for one, a noted Austrian psychoanalyst, claimed
to have witnessed various UFO crafts and believed that
these aliens are hostile. Such aliens wish to rob Earth of
orgone, a “cosmic life energy allegedly present in air, water,
and all organic matter (Life 52).” He proceeds to say that
saucers run on this orgone energy, hence exhuming a bluish
color due to “orgone exhaust.”Moreover, orgone exhaust is
“deadly orgone (Life),” causing sickness in people and creating
parched desert where ever the crafts land.The Swiss
psychologist, Carl Jung, totally differed. He theorized that
all “people can tap into…(a ) collective unconciousness-an area
of the unconscious that…contains information derived from the
experiences of the human race as a whole rather than the
individual…This storehouse contains universal symbols
called archtypes…that present themselves spontaneously in
dreams or visions…evoking strong imaginative response…One
such image was the mandala, a disk shaped symbol that represents
completion…[hence UFOs are not] real objects, but rather
mandalas…visioned by people looking for…equilibrium (53).”
Jung’s approach is quite debatable. However, as shaky an
argument it may sound, it’s as viable as those who welcome the
notion that aliens do exist.
Other more common and more understood theories explain that
aliens are well intentioned visitors who wish to observe their
human contemporaries for purely scientific purposes. However,
British astronomers Sir Martin Ryle and Sir Bernard Lovell both
warn that we must regard all other life in the universe
as potentially a fatal threat to humankind and, in effect,
discourage the effort to communicate with such beings (Referring
to the many attempts to communicate with aliens via powerful
satellite dishes.) (Fitzgerald 7).
With all the theories in mind, we come to the next issue.
What are people, in reality, seeing?
Kenneth Arnold was a normal businessman in Idaho. As an
upstanding and reputable citizen and an expert on flying, Arnold
was believed when he said that he witnessed a ship zoom back and
forth at an approximated 1,350 miles per hour. This incident
provoked a considerable amount of national debate and gave
birth to what historians termed the “modern flying saucer era.”
There were sightings before the Arnold case. However, following
it, there was a myriad of reports and calls. Although many were
hoaxes, not all were. And most of those who have claimed to have
witnessed UFOs swear that in no way could they be anything but
an alien spaceship. Simply due to the fact, as in the Arnold
case, that these crafts maneuver in such humanly impossible
speeds and in gravity defying manners.At one moment the UFO is
spotted hovering over a house and one second later can be
seen 25 miles away. People also have described the crafts as
huge cigar shaped buzzing objects or the more popular silent,
metallic type saucers. These reports include interference with
television signals and the halting of car ignitions. Such
claims, as Bob Bletchman, in an interview explained, are the best
evidence due to their testimonial consistency. When you have
hundreds of people on an individual basis, from all backgrounds,
depict the same scenario, time and time again, there is
little room to doubt their truthfulness. People even assert that
they’ve seen the pilots: described anywhere between two inch bees
to Nazis (Fitzgerald 3) to little green men with six fingers.
An eerie complement of UFO sightings are these strange and
exact circular patches of parched, bent, but not cracked
vegetation. Such mysterious circles are believed to be the place
of the saucers’ landing. Even more interesting, the circles
can’t bear any vegetable growth for many years afterwards (Life
125).
Many allege that not only have they been visited, but
kidnapped too. One of my main research sources, a curious, but
perhaps crafty David Jacobs, Ph.D., took 60 men and women who
claimed abduction and put them under hypnosis in an effort to
document and establish whether all this mumbo jumbo is true.
Although generally most abductees remember nothing but the fact
that they were abducted, hypnosis proved to uncover many layers
of lost memories.Through these hypnotic sessions, Dr. Jacobs
claimed to have found many reasons the aliens “gave” for such
abductions: scientific research, crossbreeding and general
observance of the human condition. He also “discovered” many
underlying messages from the aliens: They mean no harm. They
care and respect humans and do only that which is necessary.
His book sounded very convincing, but perhaps too convincing.
Through careful reading, I began to realize that this Dr.
Jacobs is full of bologna. Session after session, Dr. Jacobs
fabricates his “patients'” conversations with the aliens.
However, the conversations sound too repetitive in personality
and too sensational in respect to the aliens’ response.In
an effort to sound very natural, Dr. Jacobs picks up an almost
artificial grammatically incorrect tone of voice. For example:
“Mm-hmm, but fast, not slow…like whizzed by (Secret 69),” and
“I just sink to the bottom and start to breathe (189),” and
“inside out, yeah (211).”These are just a few quotes of the
literally hundreds of repetitive speech patterns in his book. I
get the feeling this “Dr.” Jacobs is trying to make a believable,
sensational story by feeding the reader what we’d like to hear:
Kind aliens, cross breeding, scientific experimentation, etc.
(Although I found fault with one of my primary sources, it by no
means typifies the value of other such publications. Each book
must be valued on its own.)
Using super high-tech computer photograph analyzers,
scientists were able to determine the validity of the widely
known Trent photos. In Oregon, 1950, a Mrs. Trent was feeding
rabbits in her backyard when she saw a huge metallic disk,
silently gliding through the air. She called her husband to
fetch a camera and managed to get two shots. These two shots
were scrutinized by the U.S. Air Force and a variety of other
investigators.
The 1969’s skeptical Condon Report stated: “The simplest,
most direct interpretation of the photographs confirms
precisely what the witnesses said they saw (Life 138).” Later
on, a William Spaulding of the Ground Saucer Watch Inc., put
these Trent photos under intense computer scrutiny and came out
with the same conclusion: It was no hoax (Life).
In World War Two, Allied and Axis air pilots witnessed these
eerie luminous balls that would either chase planes or zip in and
out of the planes’ courses. Such oddities were to be eventually
called “foo fighters.” World War Two was a time of secrecy and
great inventions. Instinctively, the allies thought they were
some kind of high tech German innovation. Naturally, too, the
Germans thought vice versa. Therefore, nothing of an
extraterrestrial nature was ever reported (Life 26),
at least officially.
There are countless reports where U.S. air force personnel
witnessed a flying saucer and reported it; only to be told that
it was probably a jet or weather balloon.Despite the fact that
Project Blue Book (a government UFO investigation) yielded a
1,465 page scientific report containing charts, photographs
and analyses, worth about a half million dollars in research, the
government stated in a 1969 news release that due to lack of any
“significant” conclusions, UFO research would be terminated.
Most fans of the research only read the introduction and
conclusion sections of the report. Unfortunately those
sections were written by an enthusiast of the U.S. Air Force:
and hence embraced their policy of denial and falsehood (Life
118). Consequently, the government’s decision to halt research
was accepted with little protest or suspicion. Yet, the
question whether the government is holding back vital UFO
information is still very strong. Many contend that the U.S.
government is doing so in an effort to ensure national safety and
prevent potential mass hysteria by publicizing the existence of
alien beings.
In 1947, in New Mexico, one of the most famous and potent
pieces of evidence literally befell the United States.”Barney”
Barnett, and some local archeological students found shriveled
and broken up pieces of shiny metal and scattered dead bodies all
over. A few days later, the army had quarantined the area,
shipped everything away, and told the witnesses that it was their
“patriotic duty” to keep the incident a secret. Nonetheless,
Barnett and the students went public about it (Life 74). To this
day, hundreds of reports and books detail this famous “Roswell
incident” and claim that the government, again, is hiding
undeniable proof of alien life.
The Viking mission to Mars in 1976 is another prime example
of the government’s policy of non cooperation and denial. The
voyager had taken two pictures of a rock form of a human face on
Mars’ surface. Before a 1992 Observer voyage to Mars, many
requested NASA to take high resolution photos of this “Face” to
determine whether it is really a three dimensional rock
formation. NASA responded in the negative, although the
government gave NASA an extra $90 million for the exact purpose
of seeking out Martian life forms. NASA gave a stupid
explanation, claiming that the 1992 Observer was only
photographing meter long objects, which the “‘Face’ could be a
candidate target. However, there are no plans to tailor the
mission to assure that the ‘Face’ is imaged (Boyce).”
In a letter, Bob Bletchman cynically responded: “How can NASA
not tilt the camera to possibly answer the most profound question
ever asked, ‘Are we alone?’ (Bletchman)”
Nevertheless, many scientists maintain that the many UFO
sightings may simply be meteorites, some type of atmospheric
phenomena, or high tech, saucer-like airplanes used by the
military. One factor that greatly contributes to UFO skepticism
is created by the thousands of UFO hoaxes made each year. A
prime and famous example of such hoaxes occurred in New Mexico,
1963. Paul Villa claimed that UFO aliens had become so friendly
with him that they agreed to pose their ship for a camera shot.
Using the same high-tech computers as was used for the Trent
photos, scientists revealed a tiny wire that was used to
suspend the “UFO” in the air (Life 140).
Although it’s very easy to scoff at the thought of Martians
and flying saucers due to the subject’s emotional
sensationalistic attributes and attractabilty to the fantasizer,
one can not simply dismiss the possibility. There is too much
evidence and too many good and honest people out there who can
give testimony. Too often, we hear of the many government cover-
ups and attempts to keep things concealed. Although the
government tries hard, they can’t keep it a secret forever.
Little by little, as more incidents occur and as more is leaked
out, the world will know that we are not alone.
It should be noted that this report by no means begins to
even scratch the surface of the UFO mystery. Not only are
thousands of books written on each issue, but each individual
case is worthy of whole books on its own. It therefore
follows that this paper was a simple over of an overview of the
massive topics and subtopics that follow.
Works Cited
Bletchman, Bob. National Board, International Mutual UFO
Network.
Bletchman, Bob. National Board, International Mutual UFO
Network. Letters. Connecticut: 1988
Boyce, Jacobs. Discipline Scientist, Planetary Geoscience, Solar
System Exploration Division, NASA. Letter. Washington, D.C.:
1988
Editors of Time-Life Books, eds. The UFO Phenomenon. Virginia:
Time-Life Books, 1987
Fitzgerald, Randall. The Complete Book of Extraterrestrial
Encounters. New York: Collier Books, 1979
Jacobs, David M. Secret life. New York: Simon ; Schuster. 1992
Works Consulted
Fact or Fiction: The Roswell Autopsy. TV Program. N.p.: n.p.,
1997.
