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... most no limits, although his theology seems to. I do not think it idle to speculate that the recent "Death-of-God" theology may have forced modern man to look elsewhere, especially to the heavens, for a new God. That we should externalize a quality so deeply rooted in man's nature is not at all surprising and one need not accept Marshall McLuhan's ingenious speculations to see that quite logically man uses his interior world with its enormous powers to try and locate what he has often believed to be omnipresent, yet somehow external. "God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere" is a doctrine that originated with St. Augustine in the third century A.
D. More recently, Einstein spoke of a sphere in four-space as t he best mathematical model of the universe, being boundless yet finite. The Harvard psychologist B. F.
Skinner says that "No one has ever portrayed an interesting heaven. " Arthur Clarke [ 5 ] sees that ET vehicles conform with Jean Paul Sartre's notions of Man, Heaven and God. The ET's are beneficent, not hostile -- "Any race intelligent enough to conquer interstellar space must have first conquered its own inner demons. " They are practically omnipotent; the "aliens" would be able to "transmute any element into any other", needing only raw materials and the energy of sunlight. I say "practically" omnipotent because even mankind's concept of God limit Him; the God of St. Augustine could not achieve creation ex nihil. Arthur Clarke is more sophisticated than many of the Ufologists, and his belief in the possibilities of communication having already occurred between ET's and our planet is not a religious faith.
He cites the radio signals which have been monitored at M. I T since 1963, mentions the speculations of Fred Hoyle about a "galactic communications network", and quotes M I T astronomer Alan Barrett: .".. The properties of the radio signals are strong intensity, narrow band width, origin from regions of extremely small angular size, strong polarization and, perhaps, variation with time. The apparent time variations of the amplitude of the signals seem to have a period of days, or weeks - somewhat longer than would be expected for interstellar communications, but not so much longer as to be unreasonable. While declining to claim that the signals do indicate a vast interstellar communications network, Barrett insists that such speculations have passed well beyond the domain or science fiction... " All those statements are very guarded, reflecting the realm of possibilities, not probabilities. Clarke later cites Hoyle's speculation that a sufficiently complex signal from space might serve as a genetic blueprint for constructing an extraterrestrial entity.
He also makes good use of humor and sarcasm, saying that aliens might think the dominant life form in the United States was the automobile. It is peculiar that he uses sociology and psychology quite often in building his case for ET's. Pro-ET observers are forever invoking the "Unimpeachable Source", saying that this man's credentials are beyond question. If this were to serve as the overriding criterion for assessing the nature of the UFO phenomenon, then we must also accept the necromantic arts, the hypnogogic state, ghosts, and reincarnation (Buddhists believe in reincarnation. ) Just because J. Allen Hynek has experienced a "flying saucer" affecting an automobile's electrical system, must the world community necessarily accept his ET-intelligent-being explanation of UFO's? We would put precious little faith in psychology, and forget that humans are fallible.
Freud has been proven incorrect. ) Sociology and psychology have been misused in analyzing the Hill case, which John Fuller capitalized on. Too much faith was put in the ability of hypnosis to distinguish "reality" from hallucination. This brings me to the nature of hallucinations, imagination, fantasy, daydreaming, and their role and function in man and his consciousness. Our culture is filled with fantasy, particularly in the U. S. , the source of most of the UFO reports and activity. Science fiction has all but destroyed the animated cartoon television program.
Hollywood has beaten to death the outer-space fantasy theme. Chuck Jones (successor to Walt Disney) and Ray Bradbury rightly bemoan these events; high quality fantasy has all but disappeared (although two Charles Schulz "Peanuts" episodes and Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" were rated among the top five TV specials in 1961). There is, in our mass-media-culture no alternative to intelligent fantasy for adults other than the outlet provided by UFO's. This discussion attempts to explain why believable fantasy is essential for the mental well-being of any culture, if only as an emotional outlet. It is not necessary to establish a need for "psychic housecleaning's", to borrow Norman Mailer's phrase. People do "fantasize" -- hallucinatory activities such as day dreaming are scientific fact.
The importance of daydreaming has long been neglected in psychology and sociology. In 1966 Jerome L. Singer published his pioneer research [ 8 ] on daydreaming, where he writes: "Very likely man's capacity to daydream is a fundamental characteristic of his constitution. Like other abilities -- perceptual, motor or cognitive -- it is there to be developed depending on circumstances. "the practiced daydreamer has learned the art of pacing so that he can shift rapidly between inner and outer channels without bumping into too many obstacles. He has developed a resource that gives him some control over his future through elaborate planning, some ability to amuse himself during dull train rides or routine work, and some sources of stimulation to change his mood through fanciful inner-play. " (Emphasis added. ) This may provide us with a partial explanation for the fact that so many UFO sightings are made by experienced pilots - Air Force career officers and commercial airline pilots. Ufologists always cite the pilot's experience as an indication of high credibility; but they fail to perceive that "experienced" implies routine, and routine ness implies increased susceptibility to hallucinatory experience.
The questions and controversies raised by UFO phenomena are not likely to be answered conclusively, and the likelihood is diminished even more by the animosity between social and physical scientists. John Fuller, in a recent (sensationalized) article in Look magazine [ 9 ] said that the NICAP people were disturbed by the fact that four of the first five scientists selected for the Condon Committee investigation of UFO's at the University of Colorado were social, not physical scientists. It is difficult to judge the objectivity of the Colorado study group from John Fuller's article, but it does seem to me that the brunt of the proof lies on those who subscribe to the ET theory. There seem to be no photographs of UFO's that have withstood careful examination, and none taken at an astronomical observatory. Even Hynek says: [ 6 ] "What is needed is for us to find a baby UFO somewhere in the crates of UFO reports. " No one has yet found a "baby" for Hynek or even a piece of a full sized UFO. The closest we come may be the efforts of cartoonists although the Australian girl who claims to have been made pregnant by a UFO alien may have something.
Pro-ET investigators can be criticized for their rhetoric, fake photographs, and irresponsible quotations. (Hynek quoted the Soviet writer Felix U. Zigel, who has been strongly criticized by Soviet scientists. ) It will require a great deal more sophistication to solve the UFO riddle, if it can be solved. The Air Force obviously has not and cannot handle it and NICAP hasn't done much better. The social scientists have been accorded rough treatment from the physical scientists, who have themselves been irresponsible. It may be the philosophical approach which ignores all the "contradictions", that will provide the best answers. (If men examine anything long enough and hard enough, "contradictions" always appear. ) Scientists must admit that conflict is inevitable in a discussion of a human problem, and that we can't be as "rigorous " as we'd like to be. As Dr.
Floyd W. Matson [ 10 ] states; "When man is the subject, the proper understanding of science leads unmistakably to the science of understanding. " Is their intelligent life out there? That is a question that has been asked for many centuries. Will it ever be answered? If it is, will people accept the truth or will they go on believing what they want to believe? There have been many documented alien sightings in this century, but there has never been any hard evidence or proof of their visitations.
Is our government covering up this evidence for our own good, or are these sightings a figment of our imagination? Most scientists say that all of the sightings are just astrological phenomena that are visible in the sky and can easily be explained. Has our longing to not be alone in this vast universe caused us to hope, imagine and create some unseen strange space men? These are many questions that I have even asked myself.
All I want is the TRUTH. The Roswell case is one of the best-documented and most controversial UFO cases ever. In July of 1949, at a small airforce base in Roswell, New Mexico, a small, brightly glowing object was observed to crash land at about 11: 30 P. M. There were many people who had seen the crash, and they had described that it was brighter, and fell much slower than any meteor they had ever seen.
At St. Mary's Hospital in Roswell, two Catholic nuns, saw the crash, directly north of them, and logged the crash in their diaries to have occurred on July 4, between 10: 00 and 11: 30 pm. Southwest of the base, Corporal E. L. Pyle's looked to see what at first he thought was a shooting star, only it seemed to be too large to be one. He testifies that the crash happened about 11: 00 PM also. (Randle 17) There were many Military officers in the area that had seen the object as well.
The object was appearing on military radar for many days before the crash. Before the crash, on July 1, all of the officers and technicians at the base had been tracking an unidentified object on their radar. Starting on July 2 nd, Steve MacKenzie, who was stationed at Roswell, was ordered to report to the White Sands Proving Ground radar sites and report directly to the brigadier general at the base. The Brigadier General's orders were to inform him of all the movements the object made.
At White Sands, there had been doubt as to whether this object was a malfunction of radar equipment or, if it was in fact, real. The airforce had other radar sites in Albuquerque and Roswell look at the area on their radar to determine if it was authentic. It was shown that they had, in fact, a real object. (Randle 23) During the evening of July 4 th, the object changed. It was growing bigger, and then it shrank back to its original size; the blip was pulsating. It grew quite large, and then it disappeared from the screen. Because sites in Albuquerque, White Sands and Roswell were tracking the object, the airforce had triangulated the location where it crashed.
The airforce then decided to launch a comprehensive search the following morning. (Randle 25) The airforce, however, was the last to arrive at the site. A group of archaeologists, being led by Dr. W. Curry Holden, had arrived earlier. One of the students recorded the object as "a crashed wingless plane, with a flat fuselage. " The archaeologists then left to inform local authorities of an aircraft accident. (Jacobs 45) When the airforce arrived at the Roswell crash site, there were two other people exploring, one a man named Ragsdale and the other a woman named Truelove. They had been collecting pieces of metal from the site, tossing it into their jeep.
But, what they saw was much more significant. They saw bodies lying about. There were several of them, about four or five feet long. There were five in total, obviously not human. There were three dead bodies, one in critical condition, and one, apparently fine. They threw the debris clear of their jeep when the airforce started driving up, and got out of there as fast as they could because of fear of being arrested.
When the airforce arrived, they looked around, and they saw the large craft in the side of the mountain, partly buried, leaning at about a 30 -degree angle, with large pieces of debris scattered about. After the airforce had searched and photographed the area, they began cleaning up. The bodies were loaded into ambulances after being put into body bags. The living creature was taken into an ambulance also. The area was cleaned over the next few days.
A little later, the airforce located a field that the UFO had apparently flown over as it crashed. The field had strange debris scattered about. A man called Brazil owned the property, and the airforce then allegedly kidnapped him for three days. They also rounded up the archaeologists, and later tracked down Ragsdale and Truelove, who drove off as the airforce arrived.
Ragsdale and Truelove were sworn to secrecy. After they took care of all the other details, they changed the story from "FLYING SAUCER RECOVERED IN ROSWELL!" to, "WEATHER BALLOON CRASH IN ROSWELL!" (Jacobs 48 - 52) This story doesn't hold up well enough though. After all the reports were turned in, and all the witnesses had been interviewed, it didn't look like the airforce could support balloon story. So, they have been changing their stories, from a weather balloon, to a crashed V 2 rocket, to an experimental aircraft. As recent as June of 1995, the airforce officially announced that it was in fact a balloon lofted to view Russian weapon test sites.
But, that wouldn't explain the bizarre debris, a foil that would reshape itself after being bent, and the pieces of metal that would not melt under any temperature. Nor would it explain the aliens themselves. So, none of these explanations could hold water. The only possibilities are that it was an early US spacecraft, or a UFO.
And the UFO, for the first time ever, is the only explanation that makes sense in this case. (Emery) This is just one of the many well documented alien sightings between 1947 and 1969; also known as the project Blue Book era. Another famous UFO sighting happened in 1951. Over 100 eyewitnesses say a football shaped glowing object hovering over a swampy area. The object dodged an airport light beacon, dimmed when cars approached, and then would brighten again as the cars passed by. The eyewitnesses watched this object for several hours before it vanished into thin air. After an extensive study the Air Force simply dismissed this case as a swamp gas phenomenon.
It later became so famous because of this unbelievably stupid explanation the Air Force gave. Not one of the 100 or more eyewitnesses accepted the swamp gas explanation that the Air Force had given. (Jacobs 198 - 201) United State astronauts reported some of the other famous UFO sightings. During Gemini IV, two astronauts videotaped a UFO. Also 2 years later during the Gemini XII mission, the astronauts aboard photographed 2 UFOs. They appeared to be about a half of a mile away from their space ship. These 2 UFOs remained observable for some period of time.
Also during Buzz Aldrin's space walk in 1969, it was reported that he too saw UFOs. Some years after the incident, the original broadcast transcript showed this quote by Aldrin, "These babies are huge sirenormousOh, God you wouldn't believe it. I'm telling you there are other space craft out there. " (Minus) During the project Blue Book era, the government funded many programs designed to find extraterrestrial life. None are more famous than SETI. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence program. This program was designed to communicate with aliens in far reaches of the galaxy.
It would send information about us humans; like the location of our home world, population of the earth, and little useful things for anyone that is listening could hear. It also listens with some of this world's largest satellite dishes. So far, they have discovered no evidence of an advanced civilization. No evidence that they are willing to telling us about anyway.
SETI has taught us many things about strange types of stars, and possibly even black holes by listening to the radio waves that it has sent out. (Shostak) Sam Harrison has proclaimed that he himself knows why the Aliens are here, what they are doing, and what they want from us. According to Harrison, he spent two weeks aboard a flying saucer in 1975. He stumbled upon this flying saucer, by pure luck, when he was on a hiking trip. The aliens invited him to come aboard and to spend the next two weeks of his life with them, and learn about their ways. Harrison was told what they are doing here on earth, why they came, and what they want. He also learned about their light speed propulsion engines and about their antigravity machinery.
When he returned to earth, he wrote a detailed letter to the United State Air Force describing everything that he had discovered and learned. Shortly thereafter, the Air Force sent him a letter back stating that the systems he described were much too far advanced for them to understand. When Harrison tried publishing a book about his two-week experience aboard the alien spacecraft, everything appeared to be running smoothly. That is until the government got hold of a copy of it.
Once the government received a copy of it, they took it off every single self in America. The book simply became unattainable. He felt that this only confirmed his beliefs; and that now, he had some sort of hard evidence or proof. (Hamilton) In 1969, project Blue Book came to an end. The government investigated more the 1, 239 individual cases, but concluded that not a single case had any substantial proof of extraterrestrial existence.
The government was accused of covering up information to protect the people. 71 percent of American who were surveyed in 1970 think that the government knows more than it is telling. The government's final view on the issue was that UFOs were just some sort of natural phenomena. They may have been real or figments of viewer's imagination, but not intelligent life. (Did) This view would coincide with an astronomer's personal statement about this matter. Hale said, "Extra Ordinary claims require extra ordinary evidence. " If one is presented with a series of phenomena where there is more than one viable or possible explanation, one should choose the simplest explanation.
This is known as Occam's Razor. Hale points out that it is an undeniable fact that reports can come from people who are unaware of various phenomena that are visible in the sky on any given night. Also, the people reporting these sightings are not equipped or trained at making reliable scientific observations. To him, the UFO phenomena is just that. Every reported sighting is either a hoax or a mistake of some sort. "The possibility of the existence of other intelligent, even advanced life is great, but why don't they formally introduce themselves. It is just rude!" (Hale) In 1995, Fox TV broadcasted "UFOs: The Best Evidence Ever Caught on Tape. " This show featured video of alleged UFOs that were caught on tape, but the show's producer was later found to be guilty of intentionally withholding other parts of the video that could have proven it to be a hoax.
Viewers watching the show could have easily mistaken and as easily believed to actually be seeing UFOs. "It's easy to preserve the mystery surrounding a UFO sighting if you don't look too closely. " (Emery) A movie that showed a UFO moving across the skies of Rhode Island didn't reveal its true nature until the whole video was seen. It then became obvious that it was a hoax. The same wind that was moving the trees was also making the paper towel tube suspended on a wire between two trees bob up and down too. Every single videotape seen in its entirety proved itself false. Here is one more example. A shape changing UFO that was caught on tape became less mysterious when viewed in entirety.
The camera this person had been using had an automatic focusing system that made the pinpoint lights of a distant plane turn into a fuzzy blob whenever the branches of a nearby tree entered the foreground. The clips on this show were so brief and repeated so often, one might wonder if the producer were intentionally withholding other parts of the video, which was exactly the case. (Emery) A recent survey shows that 50 percent of Americans believe that the government is still withholding or covering up information about aliens. One startling fact from this survey was that lesser-educated people were more likely to vote yes on this survey when compared to those who had graduated from college. What does this show, you might ask?
It shows that the more you know, the more likely you are to believe that aliens are not real and UFOs are just phenomenon. It also shows that the educated have a stronger belief that the government is telling the truth. (Frazier) The only way we will be able to find out the truth is if we take on this challenge individually. We must all come forth and report any sighting we have no matter how great the public ridicule might be. For every one UFO sighting reported there are ten that go unreported. Try to imagine investigating only a tenth of something and then try to form a logical conclusion on it when you only know a tenth of it. It is just not possible. (Stacy) UFOs are impossible to prove, short of parading onto David Letterman with a "One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater." The government has repeatedly denied the existence of UFOs for years, but all the investigations that they have staged seem to indicate that the US military, at least, takes UFOs very seriously.
During my research for this paper I became completely and totally frustrated with this whole ordeal. The only thing I know for certain about this, is that the Truth is no where to be found! In an ever-expanding galaxy, humans cannot be the only intelligent life forms. Somewhere, in some universe exists a form of life equal, or superior to, intellectual capability and performance of humans. Many people have seen unexplained occurrences that could only be classified as alien life forms. Thousands of humans claim to have seen aliens, and hundreds more say they can communicate with them.
These siting's have intrigued people all over the world, and have led to a debate on weather UFO's are real. There is no doubt they exist. For many decades people have claimed to have spotted UFO's. There are many theories on whether UFO's exists ranging from government cover-up to the another dimension breaking the barrier between our worlds. , from UFO's traveling through black holes to there being millions of other universes with intelligent life. Yet the only evidence of any extraterrestrial beings come from sightings by ordinary people. World governments tried to keep the phenomenon of extraterrestrial life forms secret.
Due to the fact our society is gullible believing every myth that one might tell to another. This confidentiality only lead to more curiosity among the people. So far, in spite of a concerted effort by not only the U. S. government, but other governments worldwide to discredit the whole notion of unidentified flying objects; in spite of the ridicule heaped on anyone who even hints they may have seen something remotely resembling a UFO; in spite of official debunking's and even threats, people still step out of the shadows of their own fear to tell their amazing stories. People do talk, and every time something is being repeated a couple words are being added.
Hence, not to many people know the truth. One example of an UFO sighting was For many years humans have criticized one another if their beliefs were not that of the common public. For example Christopher Columbus and his theory on the shape of the earth or Galileo and his theory on the rotations of the planets. Both were ridiculed, as are most believers of extraterrestrial life today. However both were proven correct, as will be believers in extraterrestrial life. With every century more and more knowledge came to people, they gained understanding of many natural and physical phenomena.
The time will pass, and we will understand what UFOs are all about, and who are the ones who pilot them. Bibliography:
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