"Art is a jealous mistress."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Close Encounters: The First Kind
On June 24, 1947, Idahoan businessman Kenneth Arnold spotted a fleet of saucer-shaped aircraft while inflight over the Cascade Mountains of Washington state. The military explained away the event as an optical illusion. Within a few days over twenty other sightings were reported around the country; the modern UFO age had arrived. Arnold's sighting
was to be classified 24 years later in Hynek's book as a "close encounter of the first kind." That is to say, he viewed the UFOs from within 500 feet of them. Though his sighting is often credited as the first, it is not. In ancient times the Prophet Ezekiel spotted four wheels accompanied by four angelic visitors spinning - as the song goes - way up in the middle of the air. Early Colombian artifacts depict flying vehicles with delta wings resembling our own Space Shuttle, and sculptures uncovered in Japan depict humanoids
with bulging eyes. Aliens, or stylized art? The editors also include three examples of religious art dating from the medieval period through the renaissance. In each, objects appear floating in the background sky. They suggest these objects are UFOs. That all three pieces have religious themes may indicate the objects are representations
of God. That they appear to be spaceships has left at least one minister theorizing that God was a visitor from a technically advance society; angels too.
There may be some merit to this line of thinking. In late 1896 and early 1897 the United States experienced its first wave of UFO sightings. To the people who saw them, they appeared to be contemporary aircraft: dirigibles. In modern times - since 1947 - the skyward objects usually look like saucers as depicted in sci-fi flicks. Perhaps,
as the editors suggest, our interpretation of UFOs depends primarily on the major influences of the day. In Ezekiel's time it was religion; in ours it's Hollywood.
Close Encounters: The Second Kind
looking to the heavens for equilibrium.
Close Encounters: The Third Kind
Headquartered outside San Diego, California, the Unarius Foundation was started by Ruth Norman - otherwise known as Uriel - to help others achieve a higher spiritual plane through the teachings of extraterrestrials. She claims to communicate with them through telepathic transmissions when not traveling by their side (she's been to sixty planets), and is preparing to greet the 32 ships of the Interplanetary
Confederation when they visit San Diego sometime this year (2001). Perhaps Swiss psychologist Carl Jung would have explained Uriel's musings like this: In an attempt to ground herself, Uriel is looking to the heavens for equilibrium. People, according to Jung, tap into what he called the "collective unconscious", an area of the unconscious mind that contains the thumbprint of
mankinds psyche which is made up of archetypal symbols common to everyone. The mandala, he claimed, is one of these symbols, and shows itself in the shape of perceived flying saucers. He believed persons who think they see UFOs are yearning for harmony. Perhaps a better summary was delivered by Brazil's air force minister when he went on television to explain a 1986 "invasion" of UFOs. "Technically speaking," he said,
"there is no explanation." Would we have said anything less about radio two hundred years ago?
Whether real or imagined, the UFO phenomenon is not going away anytime soon. The Air Force has tried through various programs to debunk the claims of witnesses, largely by ignoring them. This hasn't resulted in squelching the public's curiosity. A 1987 Gallup poll indicated that 49 percent of Americans aware of UFO phenomena believed in their existence, while another poll found one adult in eleven had seen a UFO.
Whether these are unconscious manifestations or actual objects from outer space - or inner space for that matter - there are too many believers to ignore the whole thing as skeptics thus far have been inclined. J. Allen Hynek was a skeptic, but a skeptic who believed in giving the subject a fair shake. The editors at Time-Life Books seem to share his philosophy. The UFO Phenomenon is a brave attempt to deliver a fair, accurate account of a phenomenon at
once both ancient and modern.
posted 04/15/01
OUT OF THE BLUE
In 1972 J. Allen Hynek published a book called The UFO Experience. In it, he layed out a six-part scheme for categorizing sightings of unidentified flying objects. Hynek worked with the Air Force for many years investigating UFOs, and by 1972 had grown
impatient with their unwillingness to take a serious approach to the cases. He hoped a clearer method of categorizing would better assist investigators, be they government employees or UFO enthusiasts (otherwise known as ufologists). His system was comprised of two parts, three categories in each. The first
part consisted of low magnitude sightings: observations made at a distance including nighttime lights, daylight disks, and sightings confirmed by radar. The second part involved sightings for which he coined a term that would become ingrained in the psyche of twentieth century pop culture: close encounters.
The UFO Phenomenon (Time-Life Books) examines sightings and encounters with unidentified flying objects. Volume 3 of the Mysteries of the Unknown series, its editors make a worthy attempt to provide an unbiased accounting of the unexplained, representing the views of believers and doubters alike. It contains
literally thousands of sightings, most explained - plausible or not - by unenthusiastic government investigators. From the beginning their investigations were so moribund it was easy for the public to believe a cover-up was in effect. As if in an effort to confirm this suspicion, in 1949 the Air Force disbanded its committee on
UFO investigations (Project Sign) and reformed under the name Project Grudge. Six months later it too was disbanded, the project's final report sealing its fate by suggesting the very study of UFOs might encourage people to believe in their existence.
Hynek defined a close encounter of the second kind as a sighting which leaves physical evidence behind. Although rarer than close encounters of the first kind, second kind encounters have been recorded all over the world. Usually the remnants of a visitation involve little more than circular patterns in the grass. Sometimes those patterns
are burned into the grass; other times the soil. On December 27, 1980, one UFO left behind more evidence than that.
Officially, Hynek's definition of close encounters of the third kind differs from the movie version. Hynek defines a third kind encounter as one in which the UFO's occupants are observed. Not wishing to give any credence to abductees, he ignores them as a category completely. Although close encounters of the third kind have been recorded throughout history, abduction by extraterrestrials is a
fairly recent phenomenon. During the sixties reports began to surface about people who claimed to have been abducted. Some abductees recall over time the details of their abduction; others require hypnosis. Most give similar reports of helplessness, physical examinations, telepathic communication, and loss of time and memory. For some it becomes an ordeal they struggle all their lives with; for others
it defines their existence. Belonging to the latter is a group called the Unarius Foundation.
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