Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)

The acronym UFO, Unidentified Flying Object, refers to any real or apparent flying object which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation. If a UFO is identified as a known object (for example an aircraft or weather balloon), it ceases to be a UFO and becomes an identified object. In such cases it is inaccurate to continue to use the acronym UFO to describe the object.

Sightings of unusual aerial phenomena date back to ancient times, but reports of UFO sightings only became fashionable after the first widely publicized U.S. sighting in 1947. Many thousands of such claimed observations have since been reported worldwide. Often UFO's are linked to extraterrestrials, alien's in control of flying saucers being the most popular explination for UFOs. However, many researchers into the phenomena point out that the term UFO's only refers to any object of unknown origin.

File:PurportedNJUFO1952.jpg

This is a 1952 UFO over Passaic, New Jersey. It is derived from an FBI document with no information establishing its authenticity or falsity.

Description

Although there are hundreds of different types of UFOs observed all over the world, a majority of sitings can be grouped into five common categories:

• 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.
• 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.

Although different in appearance, these crafts usually share similarly unusual characteristics. UFOs are often said to be able to go from a dead stop to high velocities and manuver in ways that defy the known laws of physics, which is one reason that certain reports are ruled out as manned air craft. Some have reported that UFOs interfere with the local electro-magnetic field, interrupting electrical devices in close contact to the UFO, and are also said to give off heat and possibly radiation. All evidence in support of these claims is at best circumstantial, but are popular in reports.

History

Ancient accounts

Unusual aerial phenomena have been reported throughout history. Some of these strange apparitions may have been astronomical phenomena such as comets or bright meteors, or atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia. Examples of these reports include:

• During the reign of the Pharaoh Thutmose III around 1450 B.C.E., there is a description of multiple “circles of fire” brighter than the sun and about 5 meters in size that appeared over multiple days. They finally disappeared after ascending higher in the sky.

1566 woodcut by Hans Glaser of 1561 Nuremberg event

• The Roman author Julius Obsequens writes that in 99 B.C.E., “in Tarquinia towards sunset, a round object, like a globe, a round or circular shield, took its path in the sky from west to east.”

• On September 24, 1235, General Yoritsume and his army observed unidentified globes of light flying in erratic patterns in the night sky near Kyoto, Japan. The general’s advisers told him not to worry — it was merely the wind causing the stars to sway.

• On April 14 1561 the skies over Nuremberg, Germany were reportedly filled with a multitude of objects seemingly engaged in an aerial battle. Small spheres and discs were said to emerge from large cylinders. (image right)

These sightings were usually treated as supernatural portents, angels, and other religious omens. Some contemporary investigators believe them to be the ancient equivalent of modern UFO reports.

First modern reports

Before the terms “flying saucer” and “UFO” were coined, there were a number of reports of strange, unidentified aerial phenomena. These reports date from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century. They include:

Photo of a UFO taken in New Hampshire in 1870

• On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that local farmer John Martin had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying “at wonderful speed.”

• On November 17, 1882, astronomer E. W. Maunder of the Greenwich Royal Observatory described in the Observatory Reports “a strange celestial visitor” that was “disc-shaped,” “torpedo-shaped,” or “spindle-shaped.” It was said to be very different in characteristics from a meteor fireball. Years later, Maunder wrote it looked exactly like the new Zeppelin dirigibles. The strange object was also seen by several other European astronomers.

• On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and “soared” above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after 2 to 3 minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.

• In both the European and Japanese aerial theatres during World War II, “Foo-fighters” (balls of light and other shapes that followed aircraft) were reported by both Allied and Axis pilots. ^{[citation needed]}

• On February 25, 1942, an unidentified craft was detected over the California region. The craft stayed aloft despite taking at least 20 minutes worth of flak from ground batteries. The incident later became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, or the West coast air raid. ^{[citation needed]}

• In 1946, there were over 2000 reports of unidentified aircraft in the Scandinavian nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Italy and Greece, then referred to as “Russian hail,” and later as “ghost rockets,” because it was thought that these mysterious objects were Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2 rockets. This was subsequently shown not to be the case, and the phenomenon remains unexplained. Over 200 were tracked on radar and deemed to be “real physical objects” by the Swedish military. A significant fraction of the remainder were thought to be misperceptions of natural phenomena, such as meteors. ^{[citation needed]}

Modern UFO era

The post World War II UFO phase in the United States began with a reported sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947 while flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, Washington. He reported seeing nine brilliantly bright objects flying across the face of Rainier towards nearby Mount Adams at “an incredible speed,” which he calculated at at least 1200 miles per hour by timing their travel between Rainier and Adams. His sighting subsequently received significant media and public attention. Arnold would later say they “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” and also said they were “flat like a pie pan,” “shaped like saucers,” and “half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. ...they looked like a big flat disk.” (One, however, he would describe later as being almost crescent-shaped.) Arnold’s reported descriptions caught the media’s and the public’s fancy and gave rise to the terms flying saucer and flying disk.

Arnold’s sighting was followed in the next few weeks by several thousand other reported sightings, mostly in the U.S., but in other countries as well. Perhaps the most significant of these was a United Airlines crew sighting of nine more disc-like objects over Idaho on the evening of July 4. This sighting was even more widely reported than Arnold’s and lent considerable credence to Arnold’s report. For the next few days most American newspapers were filled with front-page stories of the new “flying saucers” or “flying discs.” Starting with official debunkery that began the night of July 8 with the Roswell UFO incident, reports rapidly tapered off, ending the first big U.S. UFO wave.

Starting July 9, Army Air Force intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI, secretly began a formal investigation into the best sightings, which included Arnold’s and the United crew’s. The FBI was told that intelligence was using “all of its scientists” to determine whether or not “such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur.” Furthermore, the research was “being conducted with the thought that the flying objects might be a celestial phenomenon,” or that “they might be a foreign body mechanically devised and controlled.” (Maccabee, 5) Three weeks later they concluded that, “This ‘flying saucer’ situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around.” A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field reached the same conclusion, that “the phenomenon is something real and not visionary or fictitious,” that there were objects in the shape of a disc, metallic in appearance, and as big as man-made aircraft. They were characterized by “extreme rates of climb [and] maneuverability,” general lack of noise, absence of trail, occasional formation flying, and “evasive” behavior “when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar,” suggesting either manual, automatic, or remote control. It was thus recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force investigation be set up to investigate the phenomenon. This led to the creation of the Air Force’s Project Sign at the end of 1947, which became Project Grudge at the end of 1948, and then Project Blue Book in 1952. Blue Book closed down in 1970, ending the official Air Force UFO investigations.

File:Ufo-brazil.jpg

A claimed UFO from Brazil. The circular aura suggests it is a light in the foreground.

Use of “UFO” instead of “flying saucer” was first suggested in 1952 by Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, who felt that “flying saucer” did not reflect the diversity of the sightings. Ruppelt suggested that “UFO” should be pronounced as a word — “you-foe.” However it is generally pronounced by forming each letter: “U.F.O.” His term was quickly adopted by the Air Force, which also briefly used “UFOB” circa 1954. (See next paragraph.) Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book in his memoir, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956), also the first book to use the term.

Air Force Regulation 200-2, issued in 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object (UFOB) as “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.” The regulation also said UFOBs were to be investigated as a “possible threat to the security of the United States” and “to determine technical aspects involved.” Furthermore, Air Force personnel were directed not to discuss unexplained cases with the press.

UFOs in popular culture

Beginning in the 1950s, UFO-related spiritual sects, sometimes referred to as contactee cults, began to appear. Most often the members of these sects rallied around a central individual, who claimed to either have made personal contact with space-beings, or claimed to be in telepathic contact with them. Prominent among such individuals was George Adamski, who claimed to have met a tall, blond-haired Venusian named “Orthon,” who came to warn us about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Adamski was widely dismissed, but an Adamski Foundation still exists, publishing and selling Adamski’s writings. At least two of these sects developed a substantial number of adherents, most notably The Aetherius Society, founded by British mystic George King in 1956, and the Unarius Foundation, established by “Ernest L.” and Ruth Norman in 1954. A standard theme of the alleged messages from outer-space beings to these cults was a warning about the dangers of nuclear proliferation. More recent groups organized around an extraterrestrial theme include Ummo, Heaven’s Gate, Raël, and the Ashtar Command. Many of the early UFO sects, as well as later ones, share a tendency to incorporate ideas from both Christianity and various eastern religions, “hybridizing” these with ideas pertaining to extraterrestrials and their benevolent concern with the people of Earth.

The notion of contactee cults gained a new twist during the 1980s, primarily in the USA, with the publication of books by Whitley Strieber (beginning with Communion) and Jacques Vallee (Passport to Magonia). Strieber, a horror writer, felt that aliens were harassing him and were responsible for “missing time” during which he was subjected to strange experiments by “grey aliens.” This newer, darker model can be seen in the subsequent wave of “alien abduction” literature, and in the background mythos of The X Files and many other TV series.

However, even in the alien abduction literature, motives of the aliens run the gamut from hostile to benevolent. For example, researcher David Jacobs believes we are undergoing a form of stealth invasion through genetic assimilation. The theme of genetic manipulation (though not necessarily an invasion) is also strongly reflected in the writings of Budd Hopkins. The late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack (1929-2004) believed that the aliens’ ethical bearing was to take a role as “tough love” gurus trying to impart wisdom. James Harder says abductees predominantly report positive interactions with aliens, most of whom have benevolent intentions and express concern about human survival.

An interesting 1970s-era development was a renewal and broadening of ideas associating UFOs with supernatural or preternatural subjects such as occultism, cryptozoology, and parapsychology. Some 1950s contactee cultists had incorporated various religious and occult ideas into their beliefs about UFOs, but in the 1970s this was repeated on a considerably larger scale. Many participants in the New Age movement came to believe in alien contact, both through mediumistic channeling and through literal, physical contact. A prominent spokesperson for this trend was actress Shirley MacLaine, especially in her book and miniseries, Out On a Limb. The 1970s saw the publication of many New Age books in which ideas about UFOs and extraterrestrials figured prominently.

Another key development in 1970s UFO folklore came with the publication of Erich von Däniken’s book Chariots of the Gods. The book argued that aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, which he used to explain UFO-like images from various archaeological sources as well as unsolved mysteries. Such ideas were not exactly new. For example, earlier in his career, astronomer Carl Sagan in Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) had similarly argued that aliens could have been visiting the Earth sporadically for millions of years. “Ancient astronauts” proposals inspired numerous imitators, sequels, and fictional adaptations, including one book (Barry Downing's The Bible and Flying Saucers) which interprets miraculous aerial phenomena in the Bible as records of alien contact. Many of these interpretations posit that aliens have been guiding human evolution, an idea taken up earlier by the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

UFOs constitute a widespread international cultural phenomenon of the last half-century. Folklorist Thomas E. Bullard writes, “UFOs have invaded modern consciousness in overwhelming force, and endless streams of books, magazine articles, tabloid covers, movies, TV shows, cartoons, advertisements, greeting cards, toys, T-shirts, even alien-head salt and pepper shakers, attest to the popularity of this phenomenon.” Gallup polls rank UFOs near the top of lists for subjects of widespread recognition. In 1973, a survey found that 95 percent of the public reported having heard of UFOs, whereas only 92 percent had heard of US President Gerald Ford in a 1977 poll taken just nine months after he left the White House. (Bullard, 141) A 1996 Gallup poll reported that 71 percent of the United States population believed that the government was covering up information regarding UFOs. A 2002 Roper poll for the Sci Fi channel found similar results, but with more people believing UFOs were extraterrestrial craft. In that latest poll, 56 percent thought UFOs were real craft and 48 percent that aliens had visited the Earth. Again, about 70 percent felt the government was not sharing everything it knew about UFOs or extraterrestrial life.

Ufology

Ufology is the study of unidentified flying object (UFO) reports, sightings, alleged physical evidence, and other related phenomena.

Background and legitimacy

While many ufologists strive for legitimacy, and some are respected scientists in other fields, ufology has never been fully embraced by the scientific community, for a number of reasons. Despite involvement of some respected scientists, the field has seen very little attention from mainstream science. Most critics still consider ufology a pseudoscience or a protoscience.

Overall, Ufology might be seen as an interdisciplinary field, as people have examined UFO reports from a number of perspectives. In her critique of the Condon Report, Diana Palmer Hoyt notes that "The UFO problem seems to bear a closer resemblance to problems in meteorology than in physics. The phenomena are observed, occur episodically, are not reproducible, and in large part, are identified by statistical gathering of data for possible organization into patterns. They are not experiments that can be replicated at will at the laboratory bench under controlled conditions." (see external links below)

Some argue this rejection by mainstream science is part of the problem: anyone can declare themselves a "UFO researcher," and completely bypass the sorts of consensus building and 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.

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:

• CE1: Strange objects seen nearby but without physical interaction with the environment.
• CE2: A CE1 case that leaves physical evidence (e.g. soil depressions, vegetation damage) or causes electromagnetic interference (see below).
• CE3: CE1 or CE2 cases where “occupants” or entities are seen. (Hence the title of Steven Spielberg’s movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.)

Vallee System

Jacques Vallee 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

The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis

The Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) theorizes that some UFO sightings are alien spacecraft.

• 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. This theory has fallen out of favor, as its proponents then moved on to even less literal-minded interpetations.

• 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, 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 UFO's. See Military flying saucers.

There is a theory that the secret groups developing these aircraft in the USA, have been encouraging ufology to follow the "alien spacecraft" line of thought, to cover up for sightings.

The Interdimensional Hypothesis (a.k.a. "Cosmic Trickster," "Ultraterrestrial" Hypothesis)

The Interdimensional Hypothesis has two meanings here. See Interdimensional hypothesis.

• That some UFO sightings are alien spacecraft who have come from a parallel dimension or similar.
• The theory, related to the Psychosocial Hypothesis, that angelic, demonic and other supernatural manifestations down the centuries were caused by aliens trying to control human destiny, and that or some UFO sightings are part of this process. (This overlaps considerably with the Staging Hypotheis.)

Atmosphere Beast Hypothesis

The theory of Trevor James Constable (a.k.a. Trevor James) speculated that UFO sightings involve the sighting of exotic unknown life otherwise known as Sky Critters, creatures similar or identical to Rods, a theory also held by cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson.

Theorists and Popularizers

Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, also theorized that UFOs might have a primarily spiritual and psychological basis. In his 1959 book "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen In The Sky," he pointed out that the round shape of most saucers corresponds to a mandala, a type of archetypal shape seen in religious images. Thus the saucers might reflect a projection of the internal desires of viewers to see them. However, he did not out rightly label them a delusion or hallucination; it was more in the nature of a shared spiritual experience.

Vallee, a French UFO researcher, has noted an almost exact parallel between UFO and "Alien" visitations and stories from folklore of Fairies and similar creatures. This was documented in his 1969 book "Passport to Magonia" and explored further in his later works. The significance of these parallels is disputed between mainstream scientists, who contend that they show both to be fanciful, and between Vallee and others who feel that some underlying, poorly understood, phenomenon is actually interacting with humans to cause both kinds of sightings.

In the 1980s, this point of view had formalized into a paradigm in and of itself. Researcher Hilary Evans published two well-researched studies, Gods, Spirits, Cosmic Guardians: Encounters with Non-Human Beings and Visions, Apparitions, Alien Visitors: A Complete Study of the Entity Enigma trying to examine phenomena ranging from "ghosts" to "aliens" using similar principles, seeming to conclude that entities may have originated in the minds of the experiencers, with, paranormal components. Since that time, discussion has stalled, with no one as of this writing having much of substance to offer and writing tends to consist of repetitions of old theories.

This is a theory that most UFO sightings are misunderstood phenomena such as ball lightning or by a visual illusions. See Identified Flying Objects (IFOs).

Psychosocial Hypothesis

This is a theory 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). See article, Psychosocial Hypothesis.

The hallucination may be a distortion of a real object. Reasons for these wrong perceptions include:

• Hallucinations caused by mental illness.
• Hallucinations in former centuries caused by food shortage forcing people to eat moldy food, where the mold fungus had made hallucinogenic chemicals.
• Hallucinations caused by non-alcoholic delirium tremens caused by chronic magnesium deficiency.
• Hallucinations caused by the brain being affected by electric effects caused by ball lightning.
• Hallucinations caused by exposure to hallucinogenic drugs.
• Dreams confused with reality.
• Following the area's general local belief.
• Delirium caused by heat and dehydration.
• False or implanted memory
• Inevitably, some UFO reports likely to be hoaxes or lies.

The route followed by these misperceptions can be influenced by the environment that the perceiver was brought up in as a child: fairy stories, or one or other religion, or science fiction, or whatever: for example, one perceiver may see fairies where another sees Greys.

Carl G. Jung, the Swiss analytical psychologist, published a book about UFOs in 1957 (Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies). In it, he approached them, without addressing the question of their existence, as objects of the collective unconscious and modern archetypes.

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
• Jerome Eden; "The Desert Makers," Careywood, Idaho, PPCC, 1981, available from Flatlandbooks.
• Jerome Eden; "Scavengers From Space," Careywood, Idaho, PPCC, 1989, at present time out of print.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

General

• Thomas E. Bullard, “UFOs: Lost in the Myths,” pages 141-191 in “UFOs, the Military, and the Early Cold War Era,” pages 82-121 in “UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge” David M. Jacobs, editor; 2000, University Press of Kansas, ISBN 0-7006-1032-4
• Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, 1998, Visible Ink Press, ISBN 1-57859-029-9. Many classic cases and UFO history provided in great detail; highly documented.
• J. Deardorff, B. Haisch, B. Maccabee, Harold E. Puthoff (2005). Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 58: 43–50. (links to pdf file)
• Douglas Curran, In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, 2001 (revised edition), Abbeville Press, ISBN 0-7892-0708-7. Non-sensational but fair treament of contemporary UFO legend and lore in N. America, including the so-called “contactee cults.” The author traveled the United States with his camera and tape recorder and directly interviewed many individuals.
• Richard H. Hall, editor, The UFO Evidence: Volume 1, 1964, NICAP, reissued 1997, Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN 0-7607-0627-1. Well-organized, exhaustive summary and analysis of 746 unexplained NICAP cases out of 5000 total cases — a classic.
• Richard H. Hall, The UFO Evidence: A Thirty-Year Report, 2001, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-3881-8. Another exhaustive case study, more recent UFO reports.
• Alan Hendry, The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings, 1979, Doubleday & Co., ISBN 0-385-14348-6. Skeptical but balanced analysis of 1300 CUFOS UFO cases.
• J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience: A scientific inquiry, 1972, Henry Regnery Co.
• J. Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report, 1997 (new edition), Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN 0-7607-0429-5. Analysis of 640 high-quality cases through 1969 by UFO legend Hynek.
• Carl Sagan & Thornton Page, editors, UFO's: A Scientific Debate, 1972, Cornell University Press, 1996, Barnes & Noble Books, ISBN 0-7607-0192-2. Pro and con articles by scientists, mostly to the skeptical side.
• Peter A. Sturrock (1999). The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-52565-0

Debunkery

• Philip Plait (2002). Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax”. John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-40976-6. (Chapter 20: Misidentified Flying Objects: UFOs and Illusions of the Mind and Eye.)
• Michael A. Seeds. (1995). Horizons: Exploring the Universe, Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN 0-534-24889-6 and ISBN 0-534-24890-X. (Appendix A)
• A Short List of DISCREDITED UFO SIGHTINGS. *U* UFO DATABASE (June 2006). Retrieved 2006-08-19.

Psychology

• Carl G. Jung, “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies” (translated by R.F.C. Hull); 1979, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01822-7

Histories

• Richard M. Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State: An Unclassified History, Volume One: 1941-1973, 2000, Keyhole Publishing, ISBN 0-9666885-0-3. Dolan is a professional historian.
• Downes, Jonathan Rising of the Moon. 2nd ed. Bangor: Xiphos, 2005.
• Lawrence Fawcett & Barry J. Greenwood, The UFO Cover-Up (Originally Clear Intent), 1992, Fireside Books (Simon & Schuster), ISBN 0-671-76555-8. Many UFO documents.
• Timothy Good, Above Top Secret, 1988, William Morrow & Co., ISBN 0-688-09202-0. Many UFO documents.
• Kevin Randle, Project Blue Book Exposed, 1997, Marlowe & Company, ISBN 1-56924-746-3
• Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects, 1956, Doubleday & Co. online. A UFO classic by insider Ruppelt, the first head of the USAF Project Blue Book

Technology

• Paul R. Hill, Unconventional Flying Objects: a scientific analysis, 1995, Hampton Roads Publishing Co., ISBN 1-57174-027-9. Analysis of UFO technology by pioneering NACA/NASA aerospace engineer.
• James M. McCampbell, Ufology: A Major Breakthrough in the Scientific Understanding of Unidentified Flying Objects, 1973, 1976, Celestial Arts, ISBN 0-89087-144-2 online. Another analysis by former NASA and nuclear engineer.

External links

• National Aviation Reporting Center on anomalous phenomena
• Mutual UFO Network homepage - Mufon's website
• Out Of The Blue video documentary of the UFO Phenomenon (2003), 1.5hr 353MB (GoogleVideo)
• The Disclosure Project Witness Testimony video (2hrs), part 1 of 2 (59min 230MB) and part 2 of 2 (1hr 240MB).
• UFO-Movies.com - Documentations and short movies about UFOs
• Actual Aliens - Current news about UFO sightings
• [http://www.ncas.org/condon/ Condon Report, Dr. Edward U. Condon, Scientific Director, Daniel Gilmor, Editor (1968)
• Claimed physical evidence related to UFO reports, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Workshop Proceedings, New York, Oct-1997
• Flying saucers are real Full-text of Major Donald Keyhoe's 1953 book
• Lt Col Wendelle C Stevens, US Air Force (Ret) video interview (7min, 18MB) about USAF monitoring operations of UFOs over the Arctic in 1947 (very poor video quality). Earlier video interview by the same.
• UFO sightings at ICBM sites and nuclear weapons storage areas by R. Hastings, NICAP
• BBC article on Mexican Air-force videotape
• Project Blue Book Archive Online version of USAF Project Blue
• UFO Pictures Database
• Inertial Engine
• CIA educational summary on UFO
• Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)
• Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS)
• www.earthfiles.com - Linda Moulton Howe's website
• The Coalition for Freedom of Information
• NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
• National Institute for Discovery Science
• Homepage of UFO Casebook
• www.unknowncountry.com - Whitley Strieber's website.
• ufoskeptic.org — a non-commercial website directed to scientists, hosted by an astronomer.
• UFO websites
• www.breakingufonews.com Latest UFO related news
• www.alienadvice.com: Advisory and support group for those claiming a UFO/Alien experience

• UFO Pictures Database
• Free on-line Explanatory UFOlogy Dictionary With Equivalents inRussian, English and German
• How to investigate UFO cases
• UFO Investigator Certification from Flamel College
• Projeto Portal - Ufology and Paranormality
• UFO stupidities
• The Political Sociology of Alien Encounters by Eric Ouellet, Ph.D.
• The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
• UFO Norge official webpage
• Ufology forum at forteantimes.com
• Diana Palmer Hoyt, "UFOCRITIQUE: UFO's, Social Intelligence and the Condon Committee"; Master's Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 2000 read it online
• Peter Robbins: Google Video: an illustrated lecture from Ufocongress, he does not only talk about UFOs but all of Wilhelm Reich's life. (1 h 17 min, approx. 300 MB, DSL or Cable Connection is recommended)

• UFOs & the Cult of ET: The Phantasmagorical Manipulation

• Michael S. Heiser, Presbyterian Semitic scholar and author of The Facade

• Christian ministry dealing with UFO's, abductions, Paperclip and the Roswell incident, Based in Roswell, NM.

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