By Dr. John Millam

(revised December 2023)

(Summarized from the book, Lights in the Sky and Little Green Men, NavPress, by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark)

The existence of UFOs and the idea that we have been visited by extraterrestrial beings is very popular in the media and our culture. Few topics arouse more interest in all segments of society than UFOs. Movies (e.g. E.T., Close Encounter of the Third Kind, Signs, Independence Day, and Men In Black), television (e.g. X-files and Ancient Aliens), radio talk shows (e.g. Art Bell) and tabloids reflect and contribute to our culture’s addiction to UFOs. Many people report having observed a UFO (about 1 person in 10 in the US) while others report to have been contacted or even abducted by extraterrestrial beings. Approximately 47% of Americans believe that at least some UFOs are genuine extraterrestrial spacecraft and not human imagination. While opinions vary greatly about the nature of these reports, all agree that an actual proven detection of an extraterrestrial spacecraft could radically reshape how we view the universe and ourselves.

The Question of Extraterrestrial Life

In discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life, we must be careful to distinguish between three related but distinct questions:

1) Is there any kind of life anywhere in the universe? This is the question of the origin and evolution of life. While many assume that life will arise spontaneously given favorable circumstances, a growing body of evidence firmly rules this out. However, since we cannot actually visit other planets and test this, we cannot definitively answer this question either way. While this question is relevant to the question of UFOs, it is not the focus of this paper but is dealt with in detail elsewhere.

2) Is there intelligent communicating life elsewhere? This is the question that SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) is attempting to answer. If one grants the first premise (naturalistic origin of life), then the question becomes what stars and planets have a suitable environment that would allow life to arise and flourish until finally developing advanced civilizations. A large and growing body of evidence reveals that earth is unique in the universe and there are likely no other habitable planets that could support advanced civilizations. This question is addressed in detail elsewhere.

3) Has the earth been visited by extraterrestrial beings? This is the question of the nature of UFOs. This question assumes a positive answer to the first two questions; but goes further in asserting that those intelligent beings have come to earth and contacted human beings. These claims of extraterrestrial visitation will be investigated here.

Why is the Question of UFOs important?

Imagine Robinson Crusoe stranded on a small island. After years of isolation, he sees a single footprint in the sand that is not his own and realizes immediately that he is not alone anymore. This presents a striking image of how a genuine UFO encounter might impact humanity. Here are some possible implications of encounters with extraterrestrials:

1) Disprove God. There is a widespread belief that definitive evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life would disprove God’s existence. Likewise, many believe it would also show that man is not a special creation of God.

2) Technological Advances. Many see extraterrestrials as being far more technically advanced than us. Assuming that these aliens are benevolent, they might share with us their Encyclopedia Galactica, which might include cures for cancer, fantastic scientific advances, and environmentally safe power systems. Instead of turning to God, man could look to advanced extraterrestrials for wisdom, knowledge, and power.

3) Religious Implications. Some people expect that extraterrestrials would have evolved beyond the need for religion and hence would disprove religion. Others see them as having more sophisticated religious ideas than mankind and hence there would be a large-scale abandonment of human religions for alien religions.

4) Give a Hope and Destiny. With the rise of nuclear weapons and severe environmental threats, many believe that our civilization is on the verge of exterminating itself. The existence of advanced alien races would be taken as proof positive that it is possible to live past our own dangerous times. The presence of extraterrestrials would also define man’s place and destiny in the universe without reference to God.

While it is impossible to predict the exact effect that extraterrestrial contact might have, all agree that it would likely be extremely significant.

The UFO Phenomena

The term “flying saucers” became popular starting in 1947. As more sightings were reported, a more general term was needed, so in 1952 the Air Force coined the term UFO meaning “unidentified flying object.” As the investigation continued, however, ufologists realized that even this simple description was inadequate to cover all the reports that they were receiving. Investigators now acknowledge that there is a broad range of unusual and mysterious related phenomena, such as abduction reports and contactee experiences. Ufologists now talk about the “UFO phenomena” rather than simply “UFOs.”

For UFO investigators, such as J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée, the first step of investigation is to group reports into distinct categories. However, developing an effective classification scheme for UFO reports has proven to be extremely difficult because as soon one thinks they have everything figured out, something new breaks the mold. This rule of thumb that any rule or expectation that UFO investigators come up with will be violated is known as Guerin’s law (“In UFOlogy any law is immediately violated by subsequent sightings”).

The main UFO classification scheme in use today comes from the investigation of J. Allen Hynek who was a consultant for the Air Force’s Project Blue Book and is one of the cofounders of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). In Hynek’s original scheme, he stopped at Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but others have extended this to include other types of encounters (CE-4 and CE-5). (The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind got its name from Hynek’s classification scheme.)

UFO Report Classifications:

Distant Sightings:

1. Nocturnal lights (NL): Phenomena observed at night, particularly unconventional lights.

2. Daylight disks (DD): Phenomena observed during the day, usually oval or disk-shaped objects in the sky.

3 Radar-visual (RV): Unexplained radar blips that coincide with visual sightings of UFOs.

Close Encounters:

1. Close encounter of the first kind (CE-1): The UFO is sighted at close range (within 500 feet) of the observer, but it does not affect or interact with the witness or environment.

2. Closer encounter of the second kind (CE-2): The UFO leaves physical effects on the environment (depressed or scorched ground, broken tree limbs, signs of radiation) and may even cause power failures (automobile engines stall, radios stop playing).

3. Close encounter of the third kind (CE-3): The living occupants of the craft are seen by witnesses; however, no communication or further contact takes place. This kind of encounter almost always happens at night and usually with only one or two observers.

4. Close encounters of the fourth kind (CE-4): Direct contact occurs between alien beings and the witness. Apparently taken aboard a spacecraft, the abducted witness interacts extensively with the spacecraft’s occupants.

5. Close encounters of the fifth kind (CE-5): The observer suffers permanent physical injuries or death.

UFO Statistics

UFO investigator Allen Hynek estimated that on average about 100 UFO sightings are reported around the globe each night. In the US, these reports have come from all 50 states but tend to cluster in the northeastern and southwestern US. Most of the reports come from rural areas, small towns, and near military installations. UFO sightings are not restricted to just the United States and Europe but represent a worldwide phenomenon. Approximately, one person in 10 in the U.S. claims to have seen a UFO but in Russia, it is as high as 7 out of 10. Since many cases go unreported, the real numbers are likely to be much higher.

Close Encounters of the First Kind – UFO sighted at close range (within 500 feet)

At least 700,000 reported examples in the US (as counted by Allen Hynek).
Estimated 10-20 million worldwide reports since WWII.

Close Encounters of the Second Kind – UFO leaves physical effects on the environment

At least 800 documented cases in the US (as counted by Allen Hynek).

Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Visual contact with UFO occupants

At least 1,000 documented cases in the US (as counted by Allen Hynek).
There is estimated to be as many as 50,000 cases in the US since World War II.

UFO History

The second half of the 20^th century is known as the “age of flying saucers.” A single report triggered an avalanche of interest in UFOs that continues to the present. On June 24^th, 1947, a private pilot named Kenneth Arnold while flying observed nine rapidly moving bright objects traveling at high speed. Since he was considered to be a reliable witness and at least 20 other people made similar reports, his report was very quickly accepted and broadcast around the world. He reported the objects as boomerang-like and disk-shaped and described their movement as appearing “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.” The newspapers reported his discovery as “nine bright saucer-like objects,” and thus, the term flying saucer was born.

This one sighting sparked a wave of UFO sightings, including the famous Roswell incident. Subsequently, there have been other waves of UFO reports in 1952, 1957, 1964-65, 1967, and 1973. By the early 1950s, UFOs had become a craze that was sweeping the nation. The first UFO book was printed in 1950 and various UFO organizations sprang up in the early 1950s. Government investigations into UFOs began in 1948 and lasted till 1969. (See Government Investigations below.) This same time period was a tumultuous time as the nation continued to heal after WWII and the cold war began. As such, the government’s interest in UFOs was more concerned with national security and calming cold war fears and paranoia than in definitively looking for extraterrestrials. The lack of any physical evidence for UFOs or evidence of a threat to national security caused the government to discontinue their investigations. From the mid-1960s to the 1980s, there was a definite shift from simple sightings of UFOs to direct encounters (Contactees, UFO cults, Abductions, etc.). This is the birth of the broader UFO phenomena, with a distinct move toward occultic and mystical experiences. More recent events include crop circles in England, which were widely heralded but are now largely discredited.

While much of the current interest in UFOs came in the last 50 years, UFO reports have occurred throughout history. For example, one early report goes back as far as Pharaoh Thutmose III in ancient Egypt. At the end of the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century, there were three major waves of UFO reports that preceded the UFO excitement of 1947. The first wave of UFO reports came in 1896 and 1897 and consisted primarily of slow-moving UFOs that looked like cigar-shaped dirigibles but traveled in excess of 150 miles per hour. It is important to note that these UFO reports occurred prior to the first human lighter-than-air vehicle in 1904. Shortly after the birth of aviation, there was another wave of reports of unidentified aerial objects coming from both commercial and military pilots. The third wave occurred during World War II when both Allied and Axis pilots reported seeing mysterious aerial anomalies. These so called “Foo-fighters” were assumed to be advanced enemy aircraft but have never been fully explained.

Government Investigations

The government has made several attempts to investigate UFO reports. The first attempt was Project Sign (initially Project Saucer) in 1948 and was primarily interested in determining if UFOs might represent secret Russian aircraft rather than trying to explain all of the reports. It was quickly realized that most of the reports had natural explanations and so quickly abandoned the effort. While convinced that UFO reports did not represent extraterrestrial visitation, the government started Project Grudge in 1949 to investigate the reports in order quell public anxiety about UFOs. Attempts were made explain UFO reports in terms of natural phenomena, such as balloons, conventional aircraft, meteors, and optical illusions. Project Grudge ended the same year that it started because it was believed that it might be contributing to public anxiety and war hysteria about the Soviet Union rather than alleviating it.

After a resurgence of UFO reports, the government launched a long-term investigation into UFOs called Project Blue Book. The investigation ran from 1951 to 1969 and was an attempt to reduce public anxiety and show that UFOs were neither Soviet aircraft nor extraterrestrial spacecraft. During the anxiety of the cold war, there was fear that Soviets could exploit a manufactured hysteria to clog communications and launch a sneak attack and so there was a concerted effort to downplay UFO reports. Starting in 1955, the U-2 high altitude surveillance plane was being developed and tested. Since the plane flew so high (roughly 3 times higher than commercial planes) away from threats, there was no attempt to camouflage it. Thus the silvery body reflected distant light during a dark night and so appeared as a mysterious light in the sky. According to CIA estimates, as many as 50% of all UFO reports studied in Project Blue Book during the 1950s and 1960s were due to top secret government high-altitude reconnaissance planes. To protect the secrecy of these projects, these sightings were passed off as naturally occurring phenomena.

By the mid-1960s the Air Force was trying to pass off UFO investigation to universities because they found no evidence of any threat to national security or any evidence that UFO were physical crafts. The Air Force contracted the University of Colorado to take over the project under the leadership of Edward U. Conden. Project Blue Book was closed in April of 1969 with the publication of the Conden report.

During these three projects, the government investigated approximately 15,000 UFO reports. All this government research has had little real impact on public belief in UFOs. About 50% of all Americans believe that the government knows more about UFOs that they tell the public. Many believe that the government may hold the remains of crashed spacecraft or alien remains and are conspiring to keep this information secret. This widespread public distrust of the government’s explanations for UFO is due in large part to:

a) Growing distrust of the government. (Vietnam War, Watergate, JFK assassination)

b) Government cover-ups. (Roswell, Area 51)

c) Government denials to maintain secrecy. (U-2, SR-71 Blackbird)

Famous UFO Witnesses:

Not all UFO reports come from crackpots. There have also been many reports by airline pilots, policemen, astronomers, and other traditionally reliable witnesses. Here are some examples of very famous individuals who claim to have seen UFOs.

1) Pharaoh Thutmose III (1481-1425 BC).

2) Christopher Columbus (in his log).

3) President Andrew Jackson (while president).

4) President Jimmy Carter. He saw a UFO and made a campaign promise to find out what was really going on. [Most likely, he just saw the planet Venus.]

5) Ohio Governor John Gilligan (while governor).

6) Astronauts James McDivitt and Gordon Cooper (on live broadcast coming back from the moon).

Explainable UFO Sightings

While the question of UFOs and their nature is hotly debated, there are a few things that we can say with a high degree of confidence. Investigators on both sides of the fence agree that at least 95%-99% of all UFO reports can be satisfactorily explained as natural and not extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Common Natural Causes for UFO Reports

Misidentified Natural Phenomena – Many natural events may trigger UFO reports because they are unusual or unknown to the observer.

The moon, stars, and planets (for example, the cusps of the rising crescent moon in the tropics, Venus at maximum brightness, the Pleiades, and star clusters)
Unusual weather conditions (such as lenticular cloud formations, noctilucent clouds, rainbow effects, and high-altitude ice crystals).
Comets.
Meteor Swarms.
Near or large meteors.
Flocks of birds (sometimes carrying phosphorescent dust on their bellies and wings).
Swarms of flying insects.
Reflections from atmospheric inversion layers.
Hot ionized gas (natural or man-made).
Earth lights (luminous electrical events from low-level earthquakes and tectonic-geological phenomena).
Ball lightning.
Reflected light (especially through broken clouds).
Aurora borealis (northern lights).
Sun dogs (lights on either side of the sun caused by atmospheric distortions).
Red or green flashes (false solar images seen before sunrise or after sunset in high-altitude regions.)

Misidentified Man-made Phenomena – Secret military aircraft and other man-made vehicles are a common trigger for reports.

Balloons (meteorological or passenger).
Military aircraft.
Unconventional aircraft or secret, advanced technology (for example, the SR-71 Blackbird or the B-2 Stealth bomber).
Aircraft with unusual external light patterns.
Advertising planes.
Artificial earth satellites.
Hovering aircraft (such as helicopters).
Blimps.
Rockets and rocket launches.
Kites.
Fireworks.
Lasers aimed at the clouds.
Searchlights.
Japanese squid boats (using very bright lights to lure squid to the surface).

False images resulting from high-quality instruments – All measuring instruments can produce ghost images or fail to detect what is genuinely there. Instruments are designed to minimize these problems, but they cannot be completely eliminated.

Radar signals from other radar emitting sources.
Ducting (an atmospheric phenomena causing anomalous echoes and mirage-type phenomena in radio signals).
Reflection off of glass (particularly in glass camera lenses).
Apparent motions due to the motion of the camera.

False images resulting from faulty instruments or harsh environments – Instruments have design limitations that require that they only be used within a certain range of conditions (for example, temperature, humidity). If used outside this range, the device may not be completely reliable. Also, damage or faulty design can also result in false images.

Human error.
Cold humid or hot dry weather can damage film producing splotches or streaks of color.

False images resulting from faulty human perception – The human eye is an incredible instrument, but it can be fooled or distorted by damage. Similarly, the brain can misinterpret a visual image, or it may fill in details.

Defects in the eye (astigmatism, myopia, floaters in the eye).
Optical illusions (mirages).
Latent images/persistence of vision (a person seeing a bright light followed by darkness may continue to see a latent image of the bright light).
Brain effects (autokinesis, moving point effect)

Hoaxes, pranks, or fraud – Deliberate deception on the part of others, particularly restless undergraduate or graduate students, can explain some cases. It should be noted that hoaxes and pranks account for less than 1% of UFOs reported in the last 40 years.

False or embellished testimony.
Faked photography.
Disk-shaped objects artificially suspended in the sky.
Radio-controlled or programmed UFO look-alike craft.
Cleverly crafted balloons, rockets, and models.
Landing site frauds.
Alien crash site and retrieval frauds.
Fraudulent abductee or contactee claims.

Nonempirical, subjective causes – Some UFO reports result from subjective mental states rather than objective, empirical reality.

Neurological stimuli (for example, temporal lobe dysfunction).
Sociological stimuli (for example, cultural creations, myths, or conditioning).
Psychological stimuli (for example, psychosis, hysteria, sleep deprivation, paranoia, hallucination).

Combinations of natural and human factors – A combination of different factors may also explain various UFO sightings. For example, aircraft that appear distorted due to unusual weather conditions or light reflected off an aircraft’s fuselage.

Ten Maxims of UFOs

These Maxims summarize the experience of many UFO investigators. The first seven maxims come from Peter Millman, “Seven Maxims of UFOs – A Scientific Approach,” Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 69, No. 4 (August 1975), pp. 175-188. Peter Millman is a Canadian astronomer who studied meteoritics for 50 years. The last three maxims come from astronomer and UFO investigator, Dr. Hugh Ross.)

1) “There is no new thing under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). There have been UFO reports throughout history. UFO reports do not all come from crackpots. (See Famous UFO Witnesses above.)

2) “Seeing is Not Believing.” Seeing something is not enough, since the eye can rather easily be fooled. Our eyes and how the brain interprets what it sees (e.g. autokinesis, persistence of vision, and the moving point effect) can lead to mistaken observations.

3) “Instruments Can Deceive.” All instruments can produce ghost images or fail to detect what is genuinely there. Instruments are designed to minimize these problems, but these problems cannot be completely eliminated. Radars, for example, can report the presence of objects that are in fact not there. One common UFO report is a cluster of lights reported by individuals looking out a window. These images are visible to the eye and can be captured on film. The cause of these incidents is room lights reflecting off the glass window.

4) “Beware the Printed Word.” Newspapers tend to print sensational reports and rarely print retractions. This leads to an impression that UFOs are more numerous and more credible than they really are.

5) “Records are Never Complete.” Only some cases of UFO sightings are recorded and even then details may be sparse. Without reliable records, trying to accurately understand these sightings is very difficult.

6) “Man Makes Mysterious Machines.” Experimental and cutting-edge vehicles are often developed secretly, and governments go to great lengths to keep details from the public. Test flights of experimental planes may get reported as a UFO sighting. Some well-known examples include U-2 spy plane, SR-71 Blackbird, B-2 stealth bomber, the F-117 stealth fighter, and small unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

7) “Do you know the laws of heaven?” (Job 38:33). We don’t understand all that happens – there are unknown natural phenomena.

8) Neither Any Artifacts Nor Any Proven Cases of Physical Contact Yet Exist. There are no proven cases of physical contact with aliens or materials taken from UFOs. Nor is there any debris that has been recovered from crash sites or other physical evidences of UFOs that prove the existence of extraterrestrial spaceships.

9) The Theory That Life Originates on its Own is Absurd. There is a growing body of evidence showing the impossibility of life evolving from non-life. Astronomy demonstrates that there are few, if any, habitable planets in the universe at which extraterrestrials might evolve. There is an additional problem of the technology and logistics of traveling to earth from another planet.

10) Unexplained UFO phenomena appear to be non-physical (i.e. “spiritual”) in nature. Some UFOs can be seen but do not appear on radar or film, while others appear on radar or film but cannot be seen with the eye.

Some Specific UFO Cases:

In order to better understand how UFOs are perceived, become popularized, and are occasionally fully explained, several examples are described in detail here.

Roswell. Roswell resonates deeply as one of the most prominently cited proofs for extraterrestrial visitation. On June 14, 1947, W. W. “Mac” Brazel discovered the remains of something on the J. B. Foster sheep ranch that he operated. He initially thought nothing of it but just 10 days later, the “flying saucers” report of Kenneth Arnold triggered a floodgate of other UFO reports and awakened a vast nation-wide interest in UFOs. On July 4^th, Brazel returned to collect material from the site but it was not until July 7^th that he reported to the local sheriff, George Wilcox, that he had remains of “one of them flying saucers.” He reported finding “aluminum-like” materials, tape with flowers or “hieroglyphics,” and various light but strong objects. The sheriff contacted military authorities and Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) Major Jesse Marcel and two others came out to examine and collect the wreckage. On July 8^th, the local newspaper following a report from Marcel printed that “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region,” but the next day, Brigadier General Roger Ramey took over and declared that the remains were really a weather balloon and pictures of Marcel holding the debris were offered as “proof.” This story remained largely dead until it was revived in 1978 some thirty years later. Soon stories of government conspiracies to cover-up and deceive the public arose and stories of recovered alien bodies also surfaced.

The truth is that the government was covering something up, but it wasn’t extraterrestrial remains. The government had launched Project Mogul, a top-secret project to test the ability of balloon borne instruments to acoustically detect Soviet nuclear test detonations. Testing had been performed at the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Force Base using researchers from New York University. The remains of NYU Balloon Flight 4 accounts for the debris found by Brazel but because of Cold War paranoia and government secrecy, a false story was concocted for the newspapers until the project became declassified in 1992. The balloon experiments had long tails of aluminum-covered reflectors to allow for easy radar tracking and were made of balsa wood to make them light. The “hieroglyphics” were simply a decorated tape from a New York company that was used as ordinary tape. This accounts for both the government secrecy and the physical debris recovered from the sheep farm. The alien bodies were most likely anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high-altitude balloons in 1956. These tests were done to examine the feasibility of a parachute escape from planes flying at very high altitudes. While these tests were done almost a decade after the original Roswell incident, the actual claims of the recovery alien bodies came long after these experiments.

Lights over Phoenix. On March 13, 1997, a large number of people spotted orange lights in the vicinity of Phoenix. The lights formed a perfect V-shaped formation and so were taken as lights on the bottom of a triangular spacecraft. The nearby Air Force base reported that they had no aircraft in the vicinity and did little to investigate. To make matters worse, Arizona governor, Fife Symington, held a press conference claiming to report a break in the story but instead brought out an aide dressed up as a handcuffed “alien.” By ignoring or outright trivializing the subject, people became more concerned and demanded answers. The sighting was finally resolved when Air Force officials realized that out-of-state aircraft (rather than their own) had been doing drills that night. As a part of Operation Snowbird, eight A-10 aircraft from the Maryland National Guard were conducting exercises at the Barry Goldwater Gunnery Range just southwest of Phoenix. They had been dropping high-intensity flares (called Luu-2 flares) and since by law, the Davis-Monthan Air Force base won’t let the aircraft land with live flares, the aircraft were forced to jettison their leftover flares before landing.

Hudson Valley sightings. Brewster, NY (located on the Hudson River about 40 miles north of New York City) was the sight of a major gathering of UFOlogists in 1984 attempting to investigate nearby UFO sightings. Since early 1983 many reports and even a few photographs of circular or V-shaped UFOs with white, green, or red lights have been reported and were often are said to hover noiselessly, perform abrupt maneuvers, and then even suddenly disappear. These sightings represent one of the most numerous and well-corroborated set of sightings since Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting.

The cause of the Hudson Valley sightings was identified as small clusters of 5-8 small airplanes flying in formation. One police officer followed the lights until he saw the planes landing at a nearby airport and others had picked up radio conversations between the pilots on standard aviation bands, but neither of these evidences did much to quell the UFO hysteria. Later investigation showed that a small group of amateur pilots flying out of Stormville, NY had been practicing formation flying during the day and as they got better started practicing at night. When their activities got reported as mysterious lights, they were encouraged to do it more often and more pilots joined their ranks. They soon called themselves the Martians and began a disinformation campaign along with new and more intricate maneuvers. Eventually FAA began to make investigations into the Stormville pilots, which scared them enough to curtail their night flying activities. Subsequently, the number of sightings dropped off precipitously. (Glenn Garelik, “The Great Hudson Valley UFO Mystery,” Discover, November 1984, pp. 18-24.)

Crop Circles. In the late 1970s mysterious patterns have been forming in some English grain fields. Over time, these patterns became more and more elaborate rather than just simple circle shapes. This eventually touched off a media storm with claims that UFOs were creating them for some unknown reason. Soon, crop circles began to appear worldwide and have evolved to include pictograms, trigonometric relationships, and symbols. The recent movie, Signs, has popularized the connection between crop circles and UFOs. The crop circle phenomenon has a much more prosaic explanation – a hoax. In 1991, Doug Bower and David Chorley came forward claiming to have made some 250 crop circles starting in the 1970s. They demonstrated how easy it was to make even complex patterns in the middle of the night with only the help of a few simple devices. Once their work had been known, many others have continued this unique art form and have made even more intricate designs.

UFO Investigator, Allen Hendry

Allen Hendry was the chief investigator for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). CUFOS was founded by Allen Hynek (who had been a consultant for the Air Force’s Project Blue Book) to provide a competent scientific investigation into UFOs. Hendry spent 15 months personally investigating some 1,307 UFO reports. In 1979, he published his conclusions in The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings. Hendry admitted that he would like to find evidence for extraterrestrials but debunked most cases. (Information summarized from Philip J. Klass, “A Field Guide to UFOs,” Astronomy, September 1997, p. 31-35.) Hendry’s conclusions:

Out of 1,307 cases: 1,194 (91.4%) had clear prosaic (non-extraterrestrial) explanations; 93 (7.1%) had possible prosaic explanations; and 20 (1.5%) were unexplained.
He notes that unexplained does not mean unexplainable with regard to the residual 1.5%. A certain degree of “sheer luck” plus lots of hard work and time are necessary to explain many cases. However, Hendry generally had only two hours for each case.
Statistics: 28% of the UFO reports were bright stars or planets; 1.7% were the tip of the crescent moon; 18% were advertising plane banners (usually seen edge-on rather than the face-on); and 9% were fireballs and reentering space debris.
Distortions in the atmosphere can cause celestial bodies to appear to “dart up and down,” “execute loops and figure eights,” “meander in a square pattern,” or even “zigzag.” This helps explain why celestial bodies can so easily fool observers.
In 49 of the UFO reports caused by celestial bodies, the witness’ estimated distance to the UFO ranged from 200 feet to 125 miles! Similarly, some witnesses believed that the UFO was “following them” even though the celestial body was actually stationary. Even police and other reliable witnesses can easily be fooled by sightings of stars and planets.
Reentering space debris or meteors may appear as a string of lights, which can be misinterpreted as lights coming from windows of a spacecraft. The human brain then creates the illusion of a spacecraft based on this misinterpretation, which then fools the observer.

UFO Cults/Contactee Movement

Contactees represent people who claim to have direct personal contact with alien entities on a regular basis. Some contactees then claim to be an intermediate between humans and aliens by communicating alien messages. These extraterrestrials are generally viewed as benevolent beings who are working to protect mankind and helping man to “evolve” to a higher level. A few contactees take these messages one step farther and form UFO cults around their revelations. (While the contactee movement formally began in the 1950s, it has roots that extend back at least 200 years. See Occult Ancestry of the Contactee Movement.)

Individual Contactees. The most famous contactee is George Adamski who in the 1950s claimed to have had an encounter with an alien from Venus named Orthon. Also in the 1950s, George van Tassel claimed to have been contacted by many alien beings. Both men reported being taken aboard the alien space ships.

Aetherius Society. Former London taxicab driver George King started this group in 1954. He claims to have received a command from the Interplanetary Parliament to be their earthly ambassador. As the leader, he channeled messages from an alien intelligence known as Master Aetherius of Venus. The aliens are said to be benevolent and trying to provide spiritual guidance, help Earth avoid ecological or nuclear disaster, and protect us from evil magicians. The Aetherius society is a blend of Theosophy, Tantra Buddhism, Eastern mysticism (yoga), and mediumship.

Unarius Society of Science. Unarius stands for Universal Articulate Interdimensional Understanding of Science and was founded in 1954 by Ernest and Ruth Norman. It has roots deeply in the occult, mediumship, and reincarnation. Ernest proclaimed himself as a reincarnation of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep IV, Jesus Christ, and a space traveler in ancient Atlantis. Ruth proclaimed herself a reincarnation of a pharaoh’s mother, Confucius, Socrates, Mary Magdalene, Mona Lisa, Henry VIII, and others. Ernest claims to channel messages from evolved beings from Venus, Mars, Hermes, Eros, Orion, and Muse. Much of the content of the group is based on Eastern mysticism and New Age thinking

Heaven’s Gate. This group was started in 1973 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles. Applewhite was being treated for mental problems when he met Nettles, a nurse. Nettles was deep into the Theosophical Society, occultism, channeling, astrology, and interaction with spirit guides. They claimed that they received messages from incarnate extraterrestrials that are trying to help humanity. Declaring that heaven was really outer space, they taught that one needed a spacecraft to get to “heaven.” So, when a rumor arose in 1997 that a spacecraft was following the comet Hale-Bopp, the entire remaining group committed suicide to catch a ride on that spacecraft. The group was also known for its repressed sexuality and its emphasis on being androgynous. (Applewhite had been kicked out of the Presbyterian Church for having a confused sexual orientation.)

Raelian Movement. Founded in 1973, this group represents the largest UFO cult. Former racecar driver and journalist Claude Vorilhon claims to have been contacted by an alien race known as “elohim” (the Hebrew word for “God”) and taken to their spaceship. On board their spaceship, he was told that humanity was created by them as a genetic experiment and planted on earth. Vorilhon was revealed to be an alien-human hybrid and given the name Rael, from which the movement later received its name. Rael (Vorilhon) was to be the last of 40 prophets, which included Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, and others. Since humanity was part of a breeding program, there is a great emphasis on sexual permissiveness and promiscuity. The Raelians have also been received much attention due to their recent claim (December 2002) of the birth of the first human clone from one of its members.

Other UFO Cults. Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America; Ashtar Command, the Association of Sananda and Sanat Kumara; the Cosmic Circle of Fellowship; the Cosmic Star Temple; Deval UFO, Inc.; the George Adamski Foundation; the Jesusonian Foundation (Urantia); Last Days Messengers; Mark-Age, Inc.; One World Family; the Semjase Silver Star Center; the Solar Cross Foundation; the Solar Light Retreat; the Universariun (UNISOC); White Star; and World Understanding.

These contactee messages and UFO cults share some common features. The theological messages almost always emphasize pluralism (all religions are true), monism (all reality is one), universalism (no divine judgment coming), and mysticism and so are clearly tied to Eastern mysticism, and New Age beliefs. Other common teachings include reincarnation, channeling, telepathy, and human evolution toward godhood. They all rely heavily on occult practices (mediumship, channeling, automatic writing, etc.) as a means of receiving revelation. They also clearly deny essential Christian doctrines, the deity of Christ, Heaven, Hell, and a need for salvation and many promote racism, illicit sex, drug abuse, astrology, liberal theology, humanism, and/or occult practices. These UFO revelations contain historical and scientific errors in abundance as well as self-contradictions. (E.g., the Sun and Mercury are not hot and Pluto is not cold. Saturn and Venus are tropical paradises. Man will never be permitted to reach the moon. An ignorance of the diameter of the earth and planetary physics. Aliens claim to come from every planet in our solar system and from outside our solar system.)

Occult Ancestry of the Contactee Movement

The contactee movement formally began in the 1950s but has roots stretching back some 200 years before that. The first clear reports of communication with extraterrestrials comes the Swedish scientist and mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). He wrote Earths in the Solar Wind (1758) as an account of his journey to several planets in our solar system and beyond. In it, he describes his encounters with various extraterrestrials beings and their civilizations. His travel took place via psychic or occultic means.

A little more than a century later, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), founded the occult religion Theosophy in 1875. As a former spiritualist, she claimed to communicate with “ascended masters,” using occultic means. Some of the ascended masters were said to be of extraterrestrial origin. As an offshoot of the Theosophical Society, the I AM movement was founded in the 1930s by Guy and Edna Bollard. Whereas Theosophy included some revelatory messages from extraterrestrials, this new movement made them the primary focus.

In the 1920s, The Urantia Book was composed of messages that were said to have been channeled by 23 extraterrestrials and supermortal beings. (“Urantia” is the alien word for “Earth.”) The 2,000-page book was revealed through the process of automatic writing, which is a common occultic practice. As is common with most UFO revelations, it spends about 1/3 of its content denying the central claims of Christianity (the deity of Christ, the sin nature, our need for salvation, etc.) It also has statements that contain historical and scientific errors as well as self-contradictions.

The 1950s mark the first time contactees associated their experiences with flying saucers. The most famous and influential of these individuals is George Adamski (1891-1965). He reported having met a long-haired man from Venus named Orthon with whom he would regularly visit. He also reported going aboard a flying saucer and traveling to neighboring planets. During those trips he visited with Venusians, Martians, and Saturnians and even attended a galactic council. Based on his encounters, he wrote Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953), Inside the Space Ships (1955), and Flying Saucer Farewell (1961), which made him very wealthy.

Adamski’s claims have been thoroughly investigated and have been largely dismissed as fraudulent. It should be noted that he wrote fictional stories about encounters with extraterrestrials in the 1930s. He also had been involved in occultism and metaphysics prior to contact. Despite being widely discredited, his writings have played in influential and on-going role in shaping subsequent contactee reports.

Abductions

Abduction claims represent another type of close encounters of the fourth kind. Unlike the contactee movement, however, abductions often reveal a very dark and malevolent side to UFO beings. Abductees come from all walks of life and are generally indistinguishable from the general populace. Abduction cases vary widely but there are eight common elements that occur in most cases. These include (a) capture, (b) examination, (c) conference, (d) tour of the ship, (e) journey to another world, (f) theophany (a religious experience), (g) return, and (h) aftermath. Not all cases include each of these events. Communication with the aliens is generally telepathic in nature. About half of all abductees claim to have been abducted more than once and many report later psychic or paranormal experiences. While many abductees recall their experiences only after hypnotic regression, a significant number recall it without such aid.

Until the 1960s abduction reports were very uncommon, but two well-publicized cases brought this issue to the forefront. In September of 1961, Barney and Betty Hill went on a trip in New Hampshire and afterward had nightmares, a deep anxiety about UFOs, and an inability to account for a two-hour period during their trip. Under hypnotic regression, they recalled having seen a UFO, been taken aboard, and given a painful medical examination. Fourteen years later, Arizona woodcutter Travis Walton was abducted by a UFO while his six friends fled the scene. After a five-day search for him by local authorities, Walton reappeared dehydrated and confused. He subsequently reported that aliens on a UFO had abducted him. His story was made into a book and the movie, Fire in the Sky. Subsequent to these events, there have been a large number of reported cases and many scientists and healthcare workers began to seriously look into this subject.

There is much debate about the nature and reality of these reports. No undisputed corroborating evidence (artifacts, debris, implants, etc.) has been found to substantiate the claims. As a result, there are almost as many explanations as there are theorists proposing explanations. Some common explanations for abductions include (a) a brain effect, (b) hoaxes or fantasy, (c) dormant memories of birth, (d) dreams or hallucinations, (e) a psychological cover for abuse, (f) transformation of human consciousness, (g) extraterrestrial experimentation, (h) contact with extradimensional beings, and (i) demonic implantation of memories.

Abductee and Contactee Aliens

When contactees and abductees describe the aliens they encounter, they frequently report two main types. The first kind are known as “the grays.” They are described as short (two and a half to four feet tall), grotesque creatures with gray skin, no hair, disproportionally large heads, lipless mouths, slanting dark eyes, a vestigial nose and ears, a frail build, and hands with fewer than five digits. The second group are “the Nordics,” because they are tall, blue-eyed, and have long blond hair. In addition, some contactees (but not abductees) have reported humans, humanoids, robots, and apparitions. These aliens may be described as either physical, psychic, or spiritual, perhaps formally physical beings.

Of the two main group, Nordic aliens are common in British reports, but are rarely cited by Americans. The grays are generally reported to be indifferent or hostile to their captives, while the Nordics are typically friendly. In cases where both types are present, the Nordics are the leaders while the grays are treated more as laborers. The aliens were originally reported as coming from Mars or Venus, but now are claimed to come from other parts of the universe or even other dimensions.

Further Resources:

Allen Hendry, The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigating, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings, Doubleday/Dolphin Books, 1979.

Philip J. Klass, “A Field Guide to UFOs,” Astronomy, September 1997, p. 31-35.

Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark, Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men, NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO 2002.

–, “The RUFO Hypothesis,” DVD, (available from Reasons To Believe, http://www.reasons.org/).

D. Wilkinson, Alone in the Universe? InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL 1997.

Nigel Watson, UFO Investigations Manual, Haynes Publishing, Sparkford, UK 2013.