UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Stargate: SG-1

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time, apparently with official USAF endorsement, a TV series that often featured the typical alien abduction ‘Greys’ as well as Area 51 – “Stargate: SG-1”.

“Stargate: SG-1” was a TV spin-off of the feature film “Stargate”. That TV show ran for ten seasons (and inspired in turn two more TV spin-offs) and featured several alien races that in the main had links to ancient terrestrial mythology. One such race was the Asgards, and as the name suggests had connection with our Old Norse mythology. The interesting bit was that in appearance, the Asgards just happen to look exactly like the standard ‘Greys’ of modern UFO (Roswell and alien abduction, etc.) lore. This was I’m sure quite by design and no coincidence. This fictional show also confirmed several times over that Area 51 both housed and studied extraterrestrial technology.

The fact that both ‘Greys’ and Area 51 feature on the show makes one other observation an interesting observation. That other interesting bit is that “Stargate: SG-1” featured a fictional operation or program run under the direction of the USAF. The TV show featuring the fictional stargate had the endorsement and cooperation of the actual USAF, probably because the “Stargate: SG-1” TV show portrayed the USAF in a highly positive light. In fact, two actual then currently serving USAF Chiefs of Staff (4-star generals) appeared in the actual TV show starring as themselves! How’s that for endorsement! So, we have the actual USAF assisting (by providing an advisory role, aircraft and personnel to the show) and endorsing a TV show that prominently featured UFO ‘Greys’ and Area 51. Okay, I’m probably reading way too much into that. In all probability the real USAF connection probably had no actual relevance to any indirect approval of the UFO ‘Greys’ and Area 51 in the show by the USAF. That part of the ‘endorsement’ is just pure speculation on my part. So I do have to admit that overall there’s probably no deep meaning underlying this connection, but I still find it interesting, very, very interesting.

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: SETI vs. the UFO

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time contrasting the accepted way of looking for intelligent aliens (SETI – the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) versus the unacceptable way (UFOs).

Radio (and other) astronomers who search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) in the cosmos appear to have little if any real interest in other avenues that have potential bearing on the issue, which makes we wonder about just how bona fide their overall interest in ETI really is. That’s because they tend not only to ignore those avenues, but often actively thumb their collective noses at, and ridicule subjects such as UFOs and ancient astronauts. I think they should have the academic courage to investigate these fields as well, as there is IMHO an ETI signal of wheat within the UFO (and ancient astronaut) chaffy noise.

But for some strange reason, SETI scientists exclude alien artefacts that have any potential connection with UFOs, and closely related the concept of ‘ancient astronauts’. That seems to be putting your SETI eggs in relatively fewer baskets than is necessary! I mean, SETI is trying to find extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). If UFOs and/or ancient astronauts provide evidence or support for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence, you’d think SETI scientists would include UFOs and/or ancient astronauts in their collective baskets.

However, SETI, after five decades of scanning the heavens for intelligent messages, have managed to come up with only one real ‘WOW’ signal; one unknown signal, one unidentified signal, that unfortunately never repeated itself and thus couldn’t ever be scientifically and properly verified.

So sorry to have to say this, but UFOs have a lot more runs on the board than SETI, despite SETI being legit, accredited and accepted science and UFOs anything but. The track record for UFOs as a bona fide ETI subject is way better than the track record for SETI. As even UFO sceptics (like SETI scientists) have to acknowledge, some 5% to 10% of all UFO sightings or incidents remain hard core UFO sightings or incidents after proper analysis (and thus remain plausible or viable candidates for the UFO ETH) - the ‘unknowns’ category. If 5% to 10% of all interesting-at-first-glance SETI signals also proved, after proper analysis, to be legitimate ‘unknowns’; ‘WOW’ signals after the one and only one such ‘unknown’ ever recorded, that would really set the SETI community abuzz. That one SETI “WOW” signal has withstood the test of time – it remains a bona fide SETI unknown. My point is that each and every one of those 5 to 10% bona-fide unexplainable UFO incidents is, for all practical purposes, a ‘WOW’ event, equal in potential to the lone SETI ‘WOW’ signal. In the case of the UFO, the collective of ‘WOW’ events now number in the thousands to tens of thousands. As I said, UFOs have more ‘WOW’ runs on the board than SETI. 

As an example, one such ‘WOW’ UFO event happened on the evening of 13 March 1997 over the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands of citizens, including the state’s Governor, Fife Symington III, witnessed (and several filmed) an aerial display of a silently gliding formation of lights in the sky of unknown origin, now dubbed, not surprisingly, ‘The Phoenix Lights’. Needless to say they remain unidentified, and you can get in-depth documentary coverage on YouTube. 

Another point is that say there’s one extraterrestrial technologically advanced civilization reasonably close to by – say within 10 to 50 light-years. Say their radio leakage window of (our) opportunity for (our) successful SETI is 100 to 200 years before all transmission traffic is via fibre optical or other cable and the radio noise, their radio leakage, for all practical purpose ceases. So, SETI has up to 200 years to point an antenna tuned at the right frequency and pointed in the right direction to log up a success story.

Now, what’s the duration of our extraterrestrial civilization’s attempts to boldly go – interstellar exploration? 100 years? 200 years? No, its way more than that because once started, even assuming the home planet goes kaput, exploration is ever ongoing. So the window of opportunity for us stay-at-home terrestrials to detect these boldly going extraterrestrials (and sooner of later we’d be accidentally stumbled over even if we hadn’t been detected before-the-fact due to our bio-signatures – technological or otherwise) is also pretty unlimited. If they are not here now (UFOs), maybe there’s some evidence they were here 200, 2000 or 20,000 years ago; or maybe tomorrow. The argument doesn’t really alter that much if at all no matter how many technologically advanced (capable of both radio and interstellar travel) there are. Radio leakage is short term; exploration is long term. Therefore, UFOs are a better bet than SETI. 

Now that’s not an attack on SETI. I like SETI; it’s good science. I wish SETI every success and if SETI captures THE signal tomorrow, I’d be delighted. It’s just that SETI isn’t the only game in town. UFO research is not a replacement for traditional SETI, but complementary.

SETI scientists & UFO ETH hunters have something in common – they both need the (deliberate or inadvertent) cooperation of what they seek – aliens (if aliens they be). SETI scientists need that radio (or optical or infrared) transmission. UFO hunters need UFOs to just bloody well stand still, or at least have the decency to crash in a public location!

 

In conclusion, I again wish to make it clear that I totally support radio, optical, and infrared SETI to the hilt. It is bona fide science. Nothing ventured, nothing gained is applicable here. Repeating myself, traditional SETI isn’t the only game available, and I equally support and encourage any and all other search strategies. To support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, there should be a scholarly examination of terrestrial mythology, especially religious mythology, for hints of ETI. For example, do all gods in all the worlds religious mythologies live in the sky (like Heaven, or Valhalla) and possess magical (technological) powers? Also, for once, there should be a serious scientific examination of the UFO data to determine once and for all if there is a case for some UFO events (like the Phoenix Lights) exhibiting ETI technology.    

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Roswell 1947

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time the alleged crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in early July of 1947.

My bits and pieces wouldn’t be complete without reference to Roswell. I don’t wish to say too much about the Roswell, N.M. case (July 1947), other than to point out that the then US Army Air Force admitted publicly, in the media, in newspapers, on radio, that they had captured one of those mysterious (and only recently sighted – the modern UFO era was just weeks old) flying discs. No amount of back-pedalling can alter that now historical fact. It’s on the record. Look it up yourself! But wait, there’s more, and I’m not making any of this up. Firstly, forget the dozens of after-the-fact investigators into Roswell and their tomes. The only thing that really counts here is first hand, on-the-spot, eye-witness accounts. When it comes to that, the name Marcel should ring your bells and whistles.

Major Jesse Marcel (Senior) was the Army Air Force (AAF) as it was then called, military officer directed to investigate the report of some mysterious debris scattered outside of town. Now to achieve a rank of Major, in the military, suggests you’ve been around for a while. You’re not some newly commissioned greenhorn Second Louie. It suggests that one is competent enough to distinguish wheat from chaff. So, Major Marcel (Senior), upon on-site investigation of this crashed debris, became so excited that he actually took some of the debris home to show his family, waking up his young child (Jesse Marcel, Junior) in the middle of the night. It’s the sort of thing a SETI scientist might excitedly do if s/he received ‘that’ signal. Afterwards, of course, that, and all the other debris was collected by and turned over to the local AAF. Because of the unusual and highly suggestive other-worldly nature of the debris, the base commander ordered his public relations officer to issue a press statement that the AAF at Roswell had collected the crashed remains of one of these new fangled flying discs. Within 24 hours, higher authority directed that the story be changed and what had actually been recovered was a weather balloon. Major Marcel, the base commander and the press officer, being dutiful military types, just followed orders and said nothing – then. The actual debris was then flown off-site, off the Roswell base, first to Texas (where real weather balloon bits were displayed for a press conference), hence onwards elsewhere, but has apparently vanished now off the face of the Earth, unless of course it is still stored under classified wraps.

That a Major in the US AAF somehow could not tell the difference between debris from a crashed weather balloon (or even in yet another turnaround about-face, a Project Mogul balloon trail – well it’s still just a balloon) and a metallic crashed disc is too implausible or incredible to believe or take seriously. It’s like saying a SETI scientist couldn’t tell the difference between Morse Code and the radio hiss from the Big Bang’s cosmic microwave background radiation!

But wait, there’s more! After Marcel (Senior) retired from the military, he went public with his side of the story – weather balloon? Not a snowballs chance in Hell. His son, 11 years old at the time daddy woke him up, became a medical doctor and also a career military officer. But he now too has spoken out publicly and written about his, and his father’s encounters with what they both termed not-of-this-world technology. Marcel (Junior) remembers vividly that night and that material from the crashed disc collected by his father.

You can find relevant interviews with (now the late) Jesse Marcel (Senior), and his son, Dr. Jesse Marcel (Junior) on YouTube.

The Roswell AAF base commander (Colonel William Blanchard) was never reprimanded or disciplined for ordering the ‘crashed disc’ press release. In fact he eventually rose to the rank of that of Four-Star General.

The First Lieutenant, Walter Haut, who actually issued that press release, also issued a death bed affidavit attesting to the accuracy of the actual (no weather balloon) Roswell events. That affidavit can be found on the Internet at the following address: (http://roswellproof.homestead.com/index.html). 

Finally, the biggest ‘giggle’ factor detrimental to Roswell credibility are the reports of the alien bodies recovered. Why this should be so is beyond me for if UFOs are ‘manned’ by aliens, and if a UFO crashed, then it stands to reason that there will be alien bodies too – alive or dead. Of course one could argue that maybe the UFOs aren’t ‘manned’, but remote controlled drones – we have such things ourselves. Maybe the alien is actually  a form of extraterrestrial artificial intelligence – an onboard machine intelligence that controls/pilots the UFO, and resulting crash debris one couldn’t tell the difference between the remains of the ‘pilot’ from the rest of the nuts and bolts. But back to the bodies – by analogy, on balance, it would seem odd for an airliner to crash and there be no bodies. I find the idea of ‘alien bodies’ to contribute no extra ‘giggle’ factor to the Roswell incident.

Further reading on Roswell:

Berliner, Don & Friedman, Stanton T.; Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of A UFO; Paragon House, New York; 1992:

Berlitz, Charles & Moore, William L.; The Roswell Incident; Grosset & Dunlap, New York; 1980:

Carey, Thomas J. & Schmitt, Donald R.; Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the 60-Year Cover-Up; Career Press, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; 2007: 

Corso, Philip J. & Birnes, William J.; The Day After Roswell; Pocket Books, New York; 1997: 

Eberhart, George M. (Editor); The Roswell Report: A Historical Perspective; Center for UFO Studies, Chicago; 1991:

Hesemann, Michael & Mantle, Philip; Beyond Roswell: The Alien Autopsy Film, Area 51, & the U.S. Government Coverup of UFOs; Michael O’Mara Books Limited, London; 1997:

Klass, Philip J.; The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Coverup; Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York; 1997:

Korff, Kal K.; The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don’t Want You To Know; Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York; 1997:

*Marcel, Jesse (Jr.) & Marcel, Linda; The Roswell Legacy: The Untold Story of the First Military Officer at the 1947 Crash Site; New Page Books, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; 2009:

McAndrew, James & Weaver, Richard L.; The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert; Headquarters United States Air Force, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC; 1995:

Moore, Charles B., Saler, Benson & Ziegler, Charles A.; UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of A Modern Myth; Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC; 1997:

Randle, Kevin; Roswell UFO Crash Update: Exposing the Military Cover-up of the Century; Global Communications, New Brunswick, New Jersey; 1995:

Randle, Kevin D. & Schmitt, Donald R.; The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell; Avon Books, New York; 1994:

Randle, Kevin D. & Schmitt, Donald R.; UFO Crash at Roswell; Avon Books, New York; 1991:

Shawcross, Tim; The Roswell File; Bloomsbury, London; 1997:

Strieber, Whitley; Majestic; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 1989: [Note: A novel and fictional account.]

*Key eyewitness document.

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Name Dropping

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time naming some of the pro-UFO (as a serious scientific issue) people who have had first hand and hands-on experiences with UFOs.   

Given that a large percentage of the population of developed nations believe that there is something to the UFO subject beyond UFOs being just ‘silly-season’ fodder for the tabloids, it’s not surprising that a lot of household names would be among them. However, just because you’re famous as an actor or musician or politician or industrialist, etc. doesn’t by itself translate into having any more credibility when speaking out on the UFO subject vis-à-vis any old Jane Doe private citizen. However, there are some people who have had a more direct relationship with the subjects. While police and pilots and other qualified and trained observers of UFOs have credibility, they aren’t household names. In short, fame has nothing to do with UFO credibility. When I refer to ‘name dropping’, I mean naming people who, when it comes to the UFO as a credible scientific subject, have the runs on the board and have to be taken seriously by the UFO sceptics.

There are physical and other scientists with professional academic qualifications, who took (or take) the UFOs in general and often the UFO ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis) question in particular very seriously. Scientists and academics like J. Allen Hynek (scientific advisor the USAF Project Blue Book who later founded to Center for UFO Studies), James E. McDonald, Berthold E. Schwarz (M.D.), John E. Mack (M.D.), Michael Swords, Ron Westrum, Jacques Vallee, Bruce Maccabee, David M. Jacobs, Thomas E. Bullard, Karla Turner, Stanton Friedman, Frank B. Salisbury, Ivan T. Sanderson, and Richard F. Haines. I could extend the list, but you get the gist.

I should also point out that both the former heads of the USAF Project Blue Book (Edward J. Ruppelt) and the British Dept. of Defence UFO study (Nick Pope) wrote books detailing their experiences, and both took the subject very seriously indeed.

Then there are former NASA astronauts like Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell who have come out in no uncertain terms that the UFO ETH is not only plausible, but beyond doubt.

There’s also a host of top military officers who have given credibility to the subject. One such notable was Barry Goldwater, better known as a politician and presidential candidate; he was also a USAF general officer.

For every well known UFO debunker or sceptic, there’s an equal and opposite pro-UFO (as in UFOs are serious business) counterpart. In fact, based on my own four decades of serious interest in this field, I’ve noted that there have been far more sceptics turned UFO believers (though not of necessity a believer in the ETH), than the other way around.

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: The Betty & Barney Hill Abduction

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time the story of those first American UFO abductees, Betty and Barney Hill.

A Case Study: The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction 

As a alien abduction case study, consider the alleged abduction of Betty and Barney Hill which is fairly well known even to the person only casually interested in the abduction phenomena. How can this case be explained?

In brief, the barebones of the details are that Betty and Barney Hill were returning to their home after holidays, driving their car. It was late at night. Both say a bright light which seemed to be pacing them. When they arrived home, they noticed that the trip had taken several hours longer than it should of. Also their car had some strange circular marks on it which affected a compass. The ‘missing time’ coupled with just a feeling of general unease over that trip finally led them to see a psychiatrist/neurologist, and under hypnosis, the story of their being taken on board a UFO by alien creatures (now called ‘the greys’) and subjected to an invasive medical examination by these creatures came to the fore. Betty Hill also, via hypnosis recalled seeing a star chart on board the alien’s ship, and was able to recreate it. An independent researcher was later able to match up the configuration of stars to actual stellar objects, but that interpretation has been controversial, as with so many stars to pick and choose from, its odds-on that sooner or later you’ll get a pretty close match. 

Now IMHO, the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case is a way more credible case than most. Why? Firstly, it was the first that attracted media attention. There was no prior contamination and media saturation with the subject could have influenced them. By that I mean there was no prior well known, splashed-across-the-media, abduction accounts, so they had nothing to draw on – no inspiration. This couldn’t be a copycat event.

Secondly, it’s unlikely a mature couple (The Hill’s weren’t teenagers or young adults), and an interracial middle-aged couple at that, with no particular interest in UFOs or sci-fi, they weren’t sci-fi addicts, would invent such an abduction tale detailing the same sorts of alien beings that we’ve come to know and love now – ‘the greys’.

Most telling of all, why on earth would an inter-racial couple, in the early 60’s, in conservative America (and New England) wish to draw undue attention to them with such a tall tale? They wouldn’t need that kind of trouble! It’s controversial enough being an inter-racial couple without also being an inter-racial couple who sees LGM (Little Grey Men). An interracial couple (this was the 60’s) wouldn’t need that sort of publicity, and they certainly didn’t make any fortune out of eventually going public.

They weren’t into hallucinatory drugs. They weren’t hardly young kids with wild imaginations, rather a quite mature adult couple. They had no prior record of being publicity seekers and desiring media exposure. 

Their story first broke in a leaked series of newspaper articles, attracting the attention of research journalist John C. Fuller, who, then with the permission of the Hills, wrote up their story for “Look Magazine”, later expanded into book form by Mr. Fuller, with an introduction by the Hill’s psychiatrist/neurologist (Benjamin Simon, M.D.) who confirmed that Betty and Barney Hill weren’t ‘nuts’ or delusional or psychotic and honestly believed the story that came out. So we have two witnesses (Betty and Barney Hill) giving the same story, and the same story under hypnosis by a trained psychiatrist/neurologist. 

Lastly, the alleged abduction didn’t happen in their bedroom which now seems to be more the norm with implications that abductions are something mentally related to sleeping and dream states. For the Hill’s, their abduction happened while they were driving their car back from holiday. It’s rare that you fall asleep behind the wheel of your moving vehicle for any length of time with both car and occupants remaining undamaged! The Hills and their car weren’t damaged!

In summary, the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case is a way more credible case than most. Why? Firstly, it was the first – no prior contamination and media saturation with the subject could have influenced them. Secondly, it’s unlikely a mature couple (not teenagers or young adults), and an interracial middle-aged couple at that, with no particular interest in UFOs or sci-fi, would invent such an abduction tale detailing the same sorts of beings that we’ve come to know and love now – the greys. An interracial couple (this was the 60’s) wouldn’t need that sort of publicity, and they certainly didn’t make any fortune out of eventually going public. Lastly, the alleged abduction didn’t happen in their bedroom; it happened while they were driving their car back from holiday. So we have two witnesses giving the same story.

A deliberate hoax / unintentional but imaginary / psychological / pharmacology / medical explanation makes no sense. I personally find it a far simpler explanation to believe that their account is firmly grounded in reality.  It happened, with all that that implies.

Further reading regarding Betty & Barney Hill:

Friedman, Stanton T. & Marden, Kathleen; Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience; New Page Books, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey; 2007: [Kathleen Marden is the late Betty Hill’s niece and trustee of her estate.]

Fuller, John G.: The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours “Aboard a Flying Saucer”; Dial Press, New York; 1966:

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Freedom of Information Act

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time why, if there’s nothing to the UFO phenomena, why do UFO documents often have to be obtained via the FOIA?

Why is it, if UFOs are total pseudoscience or paranormal nonsense, that so many individuals have had to resort to Freedom of Information Act actions (in the United States in particular) in order to get official (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.) UFO related government documents, many of which, if released, have large portions/chunks blacked out? Further, not all FOI requests succeed. Why indeed if UFOs are just ‘silly season’ fodder as claimed by the sceptics?  Rather strange don’t you think?

UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Are UFOs A Passing Fad?

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena this time the idea that the entire UFO phenomena is nothing but a passing fad.  

A fad is a temporary fashion – a flavour of the month. Fads come, and fads go. For example, the big band/swing era; white wall tires and tail fins; hula hoops and yo-yos; the Charleston and the Twist; disco music, pet rocks, slicked back hair (greasy kids stuff) and wearing baseball caps on backwards; westerns on TV and the silver screen have mostly ridden off into the sunset; goldfish swallowing; miniskirts, bellbottom trousers and hot pants; and lots more. A fad can be anything that you adopt as a cultural value-adding to your lifestyle that sets you apart from the community at large, yet keeps you reasonably associated as being a part of your contemporaries, but which you could drop from your lifestyle if you wished or if you were required to. It’s often the next ‘must have’ gadget that you just can’t live without (so you are told), but which will be superseded in a year or two by the next ‘must have’ gadget Mark II.

Non-fads are anything that are personal choices yet are also really essential to your day-to-day existence - so a thing like eating isn’t a fad. Sex isn’t a fad. Social interactions aren’t a fad. Even bicycles aren’t faddish because they have become an overall essential, tried and true ways and means of transport. Or, non-fads could be anything that an outside reality clobbers you over the head with, like the weather, death and taxes!

To repeat, fads are temporary phenomena, only briefly imprinting themselves on our collective psyche before the next big thing comes along. What’s the duration of a fad? There’s no fixed time frame – clothing fashions can change drastically from one year to the next; the influence of a blockbuster TV series or a motion picture, or say toys - maybe over several years. TV series don’t normally last more than one generation, usually far less. So, I’ll pick an average of one generation, on the grounds that the next generation don’t want to imitate or do like their parents did. They’d rather do their own thing in their own way. Kids born in the 1980’s aren’t likely to get to misty-eyed and nostalgic over Elvis and the Beatles and “I Love Lucy”.

Well, UFOs (and crop circles) are both way over a generation old now. UFOs in fact are over three generations old by now and going strong. That in itself suggests to me that UFOs are not a mere passing fad, but reflecting a reality that’s something more permanent or on-going.

Fads and non-fads appear in all manner of genres. There are fads in sports, say in baseball where for a while the accent is on power and homeruns, yet a decade later it’s the hit-and-run, the sacrifice bunt or fly, walks, and base stealing. Yet a non-fad in baseball is throwing strikes and not making defensive errors.

What about science? Unlike say ‘cold fusion’, SETI is not a scientific fad; it’s gone on way too long for that. The man-on-the-Moon (Apollo) program however proved to be just that – a temporary blip on the landscape. Science graduates often have to choose career paths based on that’s likely to be non-faddish, long-term science. For example, string theory has been a reasonable career path for physics students for many decades now, so string theory can no longer be considered a fad in physics.

One thing is pretty clear – participation in a fad is something voluntary. So, crop circles, if all are manufactured by humans, would have to be faddish, were it not for the long duration of the phenomena. If crop circles, at least in part, have nothing to do with human proclivities to hoax others, then there’s no fad. UFO hoaxes are faddish; immediately jumping to conclusions of alien spaceships when seeing just a light in the sky is voluntary. But, if bona fide alien UFOs are a reality, then seeing one isn’t voluntary and UFOs therefore aren’t a fad.

The bottom line seems to be, if it proves to be ongoing, without any prior cultural background infrastructure, it’s not a fad. If it’s likely to die out within a generation or so, and it can be explained as a natural progression of what culturally has come before, then it’s a fad.

So, are UFOs (and say crop circles) a passing fad? Are UFOs all in the mind, something we adopt as a temporary way of assisting us coping with current reality, perhaps a novelty to give us respite from the ordinary? Are UFOs a reflection of our existing culture, say as expressed via Hollywood themes? Or, are UFOs like the weather – ever present and hammering that point home to us? Does Hollywood reflect the actual presence of UFOs in their themes, or are films perpetuating them in a faddish sort of way? 

The origin of the UFO phenomena, if one is to believe the idea that UFOs are all in the mind, was due to the onset of the Cold War, and hundreds of Hollywood films in the fifties played up to the red menace threat, often in the guise of alien invasions (can you recall that catch phrase ‘look to the skies’?). So, if UFOs are a fad, shouldn’t they have died out after the end of the Cold War and the demise of the red menace - reds under the beds? Whatever the origin of UFOs actually was, it does seem to be an origin independent of any cultural influences and no reasonable attempt to culturally explain them, and maintain their presence for over six decades, appears adequate. 

Whatever bona fide unexplained UFOs are, they certainly aren’t a fad, rather an ever ongoing phenomenon that’s part and parcel of our environmental background, cause or causes unknown, but probably extraterrestrial IMHO.