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By mid-1950, a Gallup poll revealed that the term "flying saucer" had become so deeply ingrained in the American vernacular that 94% of those polled were familiar with it, making it the best-known term appearing in the news, easily beating out others like "universal military training" (75%), "bookie" (67%), or "cold war" (58%). "Flying disks" was another term commonly used by the media to describe the objects in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He complained that the press misquoted him, picking up the "like a saucer" phrase, and reported it as a "flying saucer". However, several years later Arnold said he had described their movement as a kind of skipping, like a saucer skimming over water.

(See Kenneth Arnold for drawing and verbal descriptions.) Another drawing was of a ninth, somewhat larger object with a boomerang or crescent shape, resembling a flying wing aircraft. Arnold initially described and drew a picture of eight of the objects as being thin and flat, circular in the front but truncated in the back and coming to a point. The nine objects Kenneth Arnold reported were not strictly saucer-shaped. Some seventy years later in 1947, the media used the term "flying saucers" to describe Kenneth Arnold's sighting.

[3] This may be the first known use of the word "saucer" to describe an unidentified flying object. On January 25, 1878, The Denison Daily News wrote that John Martin, a local farmer, the previous day had reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object resembling a balloon flying "at wonderful speed," and also used the word "saucer" in describing it. This is echoed in the character of the parson Nathaniel in Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. Noting the variance of the above theories with Christian tradition, a number of conservative Protestant writers (e.g., Hal Lindsey) have suggested that UFOs and their occupants are demonic in origin, intent on seducing humanity into accepting non-Christian doctrines such as evolution.

A prominent spokesperson for this trend was Shirley MacLaine, especially in her book and miniseries, Out On a Limb. Many participants in the New Age movement came to believe in alien contact, perhaps through channeling. Another 1970s-era development was the association of UFOs with supernatural subjects such as occultism, cryptozoology, and parapsychology. Many of these theories posit that aliens have been guiding human evolution, an idea taken up earlier by the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This "ancient astronauts" theory inspired numerous imitators, sequels, and fictional adaptations, including one book (Barry Downing's The Bible and Flying Saucers) which interprets miraculous aerial phenomena in the Bible as records of alien contact. The book argued that aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years, which explained UFO-like images from various archeological sources as well as unsolved mysteries (such as the Egyptian pyramids). Another important development in 1970s UFO lore came with the publication of Erich von Däniken's book Chariots of the Gods. Jung's comparison with angelic visions in his article Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies.) This newer, darker model can be seen in the subsequent wave of "alien abduction" literature, and in the background mythos of TV's X-Files.

(Cf. Both Strieber and Vallee were led to doubt that these beings were "extraterrestrials" as the term is ordinarily understood, and see more of a connection to elf and fairy lore. The cover of the paperback edition of Communion introduced a standard "grey" alien-head appearance charactierized by a large lozenge-shaped head sharpening to a pointed chin, a small slit for the mouth and large pointed lozenge-shaped eyes canted downwards towards the nose (this was later satirized in Schwa). Strieber, a horror writer, felt that aliens were harassing him and were responsible for "missing time" during which he was subjected to strange experiments.

This model was all but overturned during the 1980s mainly in the USA, with the publication of books by Whitley Strieber (beginning with Communion) and Jacques Vallee (Passport to Magonia). By the 1970s, popular sentiment had it that UFOs were alien spacecraft, and that the aliens involved were benevolent, reinforced through movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T., and Klaatu's song Calling Occupants (of Interplanetary Craft), later made popular by Karen Carpenter. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us." [2]. ...For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts.

Cooper stated, "I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth. McDonald said the incident evidently happened; besides talking to Cooper, he had interviewed the two photographers involved, who corroborated Cooper’s basic story.[1] In 1985 Cooper addressed a United Nations Panel Discussion on UFOs and ETs chaired by then Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. McDonald’s Case 41 in his 1968 Congressional testimony discussing his list of the best UFO evidence. James E.

The incident was Dr. Project Blue Book claimed it was a weather balloon distorted by desert heat. Cooper said he viewed prints of the object before the film was shipped back to Washington. NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper has claimed, (including in his book Leap of Faith), that a classic saucer-shaped aircraft landed at Edwards Air Force Base on May 3, 1957 when he was stationed there, and was photographed by a technical film crew.

This was the case with the UFO encounter reported by police sergeant Lonnie Zamora just outside the town of Socorro in New Mexico, which is perhaps the best documented encounter. Others claimed that the main role of the supposed craft was to supervise. Generally speaking, the aliens who were purported to sponsor such groups, claim benevolent purposes such as warning humanity of the dangers of nuclear war or inviting Earth to join an interplanetary federation. The Aetherius Society is an early example; more recent ones include Raël and the Ashtar Command.

Beginning in the 1950s, UFO-related spiritual sects began to appear. Arnold's claims subsequently received significant mainstream media and public attention. The UFOs witnessed by Arnold were not, in the strictest sense of the term, saucer-shaped, he described only their movements as being similar to that of a saucer skipping over water, hence the origin of the term flying saucer. He reported seeing nine bright objects, (possibly irregular, glowing components of a meteoric fireball in the process of breaking up) flying at "an incredible speed" at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m) towards nearby Mount Adams.

Marine C-46 transport plane. Arnold was helping to search for the wreckage of a downed U.S. The post World War II phase in UFOs began with a claimed sighting by American businessman Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947, near Mount Rainier, Washington. In 1946, there was a wave of "ghost rockets" seen over Scandinavia.

In Europe during World War II, "Foo-fighters" (luminous balls that followed airplanes) were reported by both Allied and Axis pilots. There were several reports of unidentified aircrafts in the Scandinavian countries in the 1930s. However, Roerich did not express an opinion as to what he thought it might be, surrounding passages discuss the technology of ancient civilizations as recounted by Theosophical lore. In his travelogue Altai-Himalaya, Russian artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich reported sighting "an oval form with a shiny surface" flying high above Amdo, eastern Tibet in 1926.

These phantom airship scares are detailed in The Scareship Mystery edited by Nigel Watson (DOMRA, 2000). Most of these scares can be attributed to the misperception of stars, the work of hoaxers and their promotion by the media. During the First World War there were mystery aircraft scares in South Africa, Canada, Britain and the USA. Airships and mystery aircraft were also seen over the USA in 1909 and 1910 and were thought to be the creation of Wallace Tillinghast, though this seems very doubtful.

The same fears generated a similar scare in New Zealand and Australia in 1909. These were thought to be German Zeppelins spying out the land prior to invasion. Mystery airships were seen throughout Britain in 1909 and from 1912 to 1913. In 1896-97, unidentified "Mystery airships" were reported in the United States, though some of these reports are now known to have been deliberate hoaxes.

This event was witnessed by hundreds of people, as was a similar event in Basel in 1566, where numerous "flaming" and black globes appeared. On April 14, 1561 the skies over Nuremberg were filled with a multitude of objects, including cylinders and spheres, seemingly engaged in an aerial battle. An appropriate report was made for the emperor, and other appearances occurred in Japan in 1361. In 1235 the army of Oritsume in Japan saw mysterious lights in the sky.

Ancient Roman records occasionally mention "shields" and even "armies" seen in the sky. The army of Alexander the Great in 329 BC saw "two silver shields" in the sky. Strange unidentified apparitions in the sky and on the ground have been reported throughout history. .

However, similar groups of notables are equally skeptical and often dismiss such statements as conspiracy theories, maintaining that the evidence is unconvincing and that the subject in general is pseudoscience. Such allegations have been made by Ufologists as well as notable high-ranking military officers, government officials, astronauts, scientists, and other notable ETH supporters. There is an unproven contention that incontrovertible proof probably does exist but is being withheld from the public by world governments, perhaps out of fear of widespread panic and social disruption that might result from disclosure of such information. However, no incontrovertible physical evidence of the existence of such spacecraft has been presented, though many forms of disputed physical evidence do exist in the public domain.

However, the original working term UFO has largely become popularized in the public mind with the notion that UFOs might be extraterrestrial spacecraft (the ETH or Extraterrestrial hypothesis). A number of conventional and unconventional theories have been proposed to explain UFOs. (USAF document). Such characteristics, as noted by early Air Force studies dating back to 1947, might include unconventional shape, high speed and/or acceleration, high maneuverability, extreme rate of climb, absence of sound and/or trail, formation flying, and/or evasion upon pursuit.

By the stricter definitions, something must remain unidentified and have anomalous characteristics to be classified as a UFO. Air Force adopted a similar official definition in 1954, saying a UFO is "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." In addition, investigation was stated to be for the purposes of national security and to ascertain "technical aspects." (USAF document). The U.S. Air Force consultant and UFO proponent, as "the reported perception of an object or light seen in the sky or upon the land the appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behaviour of which do not suggest a logical, conventional explanation and which is not only mystifying to the original percipients but remains unidentified after close scrutiny of all available evidence by persons who are technically capable of making a common sense identification, if one is possible.".

Allen Hynek, late astronomer, U.S. J. A fuller definition was given by Dr. A UFO or Unidentified Flying Object is simply defined as any object or optical phenomenon observed in the sky which cannot be identified, even after being thoroughly investigated by qualified people.

More than one explanation--various combinations of the above. The Man-made Craft Hypothesis (see Military flying saucers). The Earthlights/Tectonic Stress Hypothesis. ball lightning.

The Natural Explanation Hypothesis, e.g. The Psychological-Social Hypothesis. The Interdimensional Hypothesis. The Paranormal/Occult Hypothesis.

The Extraterrestrial Visitation Hypothesis. Aurora borealis (northern lights). Reflected light (especially through broken clouds). Atmospheric inversion layers.

Ball lightning. Earth lights (luminous electrical events from low-level earthquakes and tectonic-geological phenomena.). Hot ionized gas (natural or man-made). Reflections from atmospheric inversion layers.

Swarms of flying insects. Flocks of birds. Near or large meteors. Meteor Swarms.

Comets. Unusual weather conditions (such as lenticular cloud formations, noctilucent clouds, rainbow effects, and high-altitude ice crystals). The moon, stars, and planets (for example, the cusps of the rising crescent moon in the tropics, and Venus at maximum brightness). Jiffy Fire Starters.

Deliberate hoaxes. Searchlights. Lasers aimed at the clouds. Fireworks.

Hang-gliders. Model aircraft. Kites. Rockets and rocket launches.

Blimps. Hovering aircraft (such as helicopters). Artificial earth satellites (and particularly satellite flares, which can be surprisingly bright). Advertising planes.

Unconventional aircraft or advanced technology (i.e., the SR-71 Blackbird or the B-2 Stealth bomber). Flashing landing lights of conventional aircraft. Military aircraft. Balloons (meteorological or passenger).

The human brain then creates the illusion of a spacecraft based on this misinterpretation, which then fools the observer.". Reentering space debris or meteors may appear as a string of lights, which can be misinterpreted as lights coming from windows of a spacecraft. Even police and other reliable witnesses can easily be fooled by sightings of stars and planets. Similarly, some witnesses believed that the UFO was “following them” even though the celestial body was actually stationary.

In 49 of the UFO reports caused by celestial bodies, the witness’ estimated distance to the UFO ranged from 200 feet to 125 miles (60 m to 200 km). 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. 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. "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.

[27]. James Harder as intense magnetic fields from the UFO causing the Faraday effect. Misc: Recorded electromagnetic emissions, such as microwaves detected in the well-known 1957 RB-47 surveillance aircraft case, which was also a visual and radar case; [26] polarization rings observed around a UFO by a scientist, theorized by Dr. The 1964 Socorro incident also left metal traces, analyzed by NASA.

Actual hard physical evidence cases, such as 1957, Ubatuba, Brazil, magnesium fragments analyzed in the Condon Report and by others. [25]. Remote radiation detection, some noted in FBI and CIA documents occurring over government nuclear installations at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1950, also reported by Project Blue Book director Ed Ruppelt in his book. Electromagnetic interference effects, including stalled cars, power black-outs, radio/TV interference, magnetic compass deflections, and aircraft navigation, communication, and engine disruption.[24].

Biological effects on plants such as increased or decreased growth, germination effects on seeds, and blown-out stem nodes (usually associated with physical trace cases or crop circles). Such cases can and have been analyzed using forensic science techniques. So-called Animal/Cattle Mutilation cases, that some feel are also part of the UFO phenomenon. [23].

One such case dates back to 1886, a Venezuelan incident reported in Scientific American magazine. Physiological effects on people and animals including temporary paralysis, skin burns and rashes, corneal burns, and symptoms resembling radiation poisoning, such as the Cash-Landrum incident in 1980. [20] Catalogs of several thousand such cases have been compiled, particularly by researcher Ted Phillips.[21][22]. Another less than 2 weeks later, in January 1981, occurred in Trans-en-Provence and was investigated by GEPAN, then France's official government UFO-investigation agency.

A well-known example from December 1980 was the USAF Rendlesham Forest Incident in England. Height 611 UFO Incident or the 1964 Lonnie Zamora's Socorro, New Mexico encounter, considered one of the most inexplicable of the USAF Project Blue Book cases). See, e.g. Landing physical trace evidence, including ground impressions, burned and/or dessicated soil, burned and broken foliage, magnetic anomalies, increased radiation levels, and metallic traces.

Recorded gravimetric and magnetic disturbances (extremely rare). Recorded visual spectrograms (extremely rare) — (see Spectrometer). A library of Star Cruisers has been compiled complete with links to the official government versions of the images. Images recorded by SOHO and other Sun watching probes.

Photograpic evidence, including still photos, movie film, and video, including some in infrared spectrum (rare). One such recent example were the mass sightings of large, silent, low-flying black triangles in 1989 and 1990 over Belgium. These are often considered among the best cases since they usually involve trained military personnel, simultaneous visual sightings, and aircraft intercepts. Radar contact and tracking, sometimes from multiple sites.

5% of respondents admitted to puzzling sightings; only 10% of these said they had reported their sightings. only 3% for UFOs being actual alien craft. Probabilities of conventional explanations such as hoax or familiar/unfamiliar craft or natural phenomena were rated at 13% to 23% vs. Skepticism against the extraterrestrial hypothesis ran high.

Younger scientists were more willing to investigate than older ones. 68% who had spent over 300 hours. Only 29% of those having spent less than an hour reading about the subject felt further investigation was warranted vs. Lack of knowledge strongly contributed to skepticism and lack of willingness to investigate.

80% expressed a willingness to contribute to the resolution of the UFO question, though only 13% of these could think of a way to do so. only 20% who felt they definitely or probably were not. 53% felt UFOs were definitely or probably a topic worthy of further scientific study vs. Air Force in the 1950's or the 1960's Condon Commission?.

Why focus on only poor cases when there are also many high-quality, unexplainable ones, even when investigated by trained scientists, such as those involved with the Battelle Institute investigation for the U.S. Many sightings, for example, are not of distant "lights in the sky," which might easily be simple misidentifications, but are of structured objects at close range, often with associated physical effects and evidence (see below). Some arguments show a lack of knowledge of the available evidence. Why would aliens necessarily make their presence unambiguously known? Why would alien interests necessarily be restricted to simple physical surveys? Why assume interstellar travel to be nearly impossible, basically an assumption that alien science and technology would not be that much more advanced than that of present-day humans?.

Many of the skeptical arguments rest on hidden or presumed assumptions about alien intentions and technology. The general sensationalization surrounding the subject, including the perception that many amateur researchers lack proper scientific training and instead have a "readiness to believe". The many circumstances that can lead to misidentification of ordinary objects seen at a distance in the sky — a scientific, skeptical approach can cast reasonable doubt on the "strangeness" of cases that appear at first glance to be very impressive. The unreliability or scientific inadequacy of many reports.

Lack of indisputable physical evidence. Arguments that aliens could not be here because of the distances and energies required for interstellar travel in a reasonable period of time, according to present-day understanding of physical law. home page. Education and lobbying group that runs The Disclosure Project, an effort to get government disclosure on UFOs and other topics, claiming to currently have over 400 government, military, and intelligence witnesses.

Steven Greer. Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI)[7] (1990- ): Maryland based, founded and run by the controversial Dr. home page. based group founded and headed by political activist/lobbyist Stephen Bassett, pushing for government UFO disclosure.

Paradigm Research Group (PRG) & Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC) (1996- ): Small, Washington D.C. home page. Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS) (~1978- ): Small, Arizona based research and judicially oriented organization filing many FOIA applications and lawsuits to declassify and release government UFO information. National Institute of Discovery Science (NIDS) (1996-present).

Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) (1976-present). Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) (1973-present). Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) (1969-present). National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) (1956-1980).

Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) (1952-1988). About 30% of the cases examined by the Condon Committee itself were "well-documented but unexplainable" and formed the "hard core of the UFO controversy." They recommended a moderate level, ongoing scientific study of UFOs. The conclusions were quickly endorsed by the National Academy of Science (NAS), but a more detailed review by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) criticized the NAS position and the Condon Report conclusions, which they noted did not match the actual data. The Condon Committee (1966 to 1969), commissioned by Project Blue Book while under pressure from a Congressional inquiry after a new wave of sightings in 1965 and 1966, was a landmark but still controversial study which supported the misidentification-delusion-hoax explanation for UFO reports, and furthermore argued that no available evidence warranted further scientific study.

The report's conclusions have been offered as a possible motive for governments to cover up evidence of extraterrestrial life. The study was noteworthy for its conclusions regarding possible future contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, which they felt would likely be highly disruptive: "...societies sure of their own place in the universe have disintegrated when confronted by a superior society..." Among groups cited as likely having trouble adapting to the new reality were religious fundamentalists and many scientists. The Brookings Report was a study commisioned by NASA in 1960 from the Brookings Institution. Also six studied characteristics (speed, duration, color, etc.) were found to be different between knowns and unknowns at a high level of statistical significance.

18%). Their statistics indicated that 22% of the reports remained unexplained even after stringent analysis and the highest quality reports were twice as likely to remain unexplained than the poorest quality (35% vs. 14 was a massive scientific statistical study of all Blue Book UFO reports to date conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute at behest of the Air Force from 1951 to 1954. Project Blue Book Special Report No.