Best UFO Info and Research Resources

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Executive Summary on UFOs

Definition of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects):

"A UFO is the reported sighting of an object or light seen in the sky or on land, whose appearance, trajectory, motions, lights and colors do not have an obvious conventional or natural explanation, and which cannot be explained, not only by the original witness, but by scientists or technical experts who try to make a common sense identification after examining the evidence." -- Center for UFO Studies

If the only strange things seen in the sky were a few oddly moving lights at night, or some specks glinting in the sun, there would be no UFO issue. But there have been many close range observations of these strange objects. Often by multiple witnesses and sometimes with radar confirmation. In addition, physical traces of various kinds have been left behind, and witnesses have experienced physical and medical effects.

"The type of UFO reports that are most intriguing are close-range sightings of machine-like objects of unconventional nature and unconventional performance characteristics, seen at low altitudes, and sometimes even on the ground. The general public is entirely unaware of the large number of such reports that are coming from credible witnesses... When one starts searching for such cases, their number are quite astonishing. Also, such sightings appear to be occurring all over the globe."
-- Prof. James E. McDonald (past head of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona), "Are UFOs Extraterrestrial Surveillance Craft?", talk given at AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), 1968.

According to multiple surveys over the last several decades and from different countries: ~7% of people have seen a UFO. Over 150.000 UFO sightings have been documented in the last 60 years and recorded in various databases, but the total number of UFO sightings is estimated to be in the millions. There are several thousand sightings reported each year, yet surveys show that only a small percentage (~10%) of those who see a UFO report the sighting.

Of all of the reported sightings, a "core" between 5% and 25% (depending on the sample) remain unidentifiable to expert examination. These are the real UFOs i.e. inexplicable "high quality and strangeness" cases (the rest probably being misinterpreted astronomic or meteorological phenomena, optical illusions, balloons, aircraft, birds etc). Deliberate fraudulent reports / hoaxes are relatively few, under 5%.

Although the term "flying saucer" infers a disk-like craft (which is a common type seen near the ground, thought to be "earth excursion vehicles"), most UFOs observed in daylight, when the shape and details can be seen, are described as having simple symmetrical geometric shapes: disk/saucer, sphere/round, egg/oval/elliptical, cigar/cylinder, conical/ice-cream cone, triangular/pyramid, fireball/"orbs" and variety of sizes (more info later).

Dr. J. Allen Hynek (past Chairman of the Astronomy Department of Northwestern University) served as the scientific consultant to US Air Force's official (public?) UFO investigation Project "Blue Book". He did field-investigations and talked to claimed UFO eye-witnesses for 21 years (between 1948-1969). Initially a skeptic who tried to "explain away" the phenomenon, later became convinced of the UFO reality. He presented his views at the United Nations, on 27-Nov-1978:

"Mr. Chairman (of the United Nations), we are dealing here with an unexplained phenomenon which has been reported so far from 133 nations, and which has aroused the concern, and often the fear, of significant fractions of their population.
[snip]
Mr. Chairman, I have not always held the opinion that UFOs were worthy of serious scientific study. I began my work as Scientific Consultant to the U.S. Air Force as an open skeptic, in the firm belief that we were dealing with a mental aberration and a public nuisance. Only in the face of stubborn facts and data similar to those studied by the French commission... have I been forced to change my opinion.
[snip]
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, let me once again clearly state that it is my considered opinion, as a scientist who has devoted many years to its study, that the UFO phenomenon is real and not the creation of disturbed minds, and that it has both grave and important implications for science and for the political and social well-being of the peoples of this Earth." [full text of speech] -- Dr. J Allen Hynek

The UFO subject is huge, there is a lot of good stuff, but also a lot of nonsense out there, as well as deliberate disinformation. If you are new to the subject and have very little time (~20hrs) to devote to it, a few classic items you want to read/view (you need fast Internet to watch the videos online) are:

1. Out Of The Blue: The definitive investigation of the UFO phenomenon (watch online GoogleVideo or YouTube) video documentary (2003), 1hr30min 353MB (GoogleVideo). Best "general background" UFO documentary I've seen sofar (and I've watched quite a few). Interviews with former astronauts and military pilots (Gordon Cooper and Dr Edgar Mitchell from USA and Popovich from Russia), radar operators and scientists. UFO initiatives by former US presidents Carter, Ford and Clinton etc. Briefly covers classic UFO incidents in US, Russia, Britain, France, Iran etc and studies like the French COMETA Report. (can't purchase directly, or from Amazon.com original stock of it has been sold-out!)
2. Prof. James E. McDonald's presentation about the UFO issue, before the Committee on Science and Astronautics of US Congress July-1968 (alternate source) The hypotheses of UFOs issue. Why don't pilots see UFOs? Why are UFOs only seen by lone individuals? Why no multiple-witness sightings? Why don't astronomers ever see UFOs? Why aren't UFOs ever tracked by radar? Why aren't there numerous photos of UFOs if they really exist? Shouldn't they produce physical effects? etc debunking popular UFO myths with examples from personally investigated cases. A bit more technical, his paper at the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposium, Montreal, Canada, 12-Mar-1968.
3. The Disclosure Project Witness Testimony (2001) Googlevideo (2hrs), part 1 of 2 (59min 230MB) and part 2 of 2 (1hr 240MB). Two hours long video distillation from 400hrs of raw video footage of dozens of retired USA intelligence, government and military persons testimonies on the subject of UFO and US government coverup. Quick text summary (.html) of such testimonies given in 1999-2000.
4. UFO Briefing Document - The best available evidence by Don Berliner (1995). Financed by Laurance Rockefeller, roughly 1,000 copies of this 168-page document were delivered in 1995 to President Clinton, U.S. Congress, Heads of State and other potentially influencial people around the world (also available as mass paperback edition from Amazon)
5. French COMETA Report "UFOs and Defense: What should we prepare for?" (1999) originally 90pages, translated into English without the images Part 1 (.pdf 750KB) and Part 2 (.pdf 2MB). A study by top French military officers and scientists/engineers. The report is prefaced by General Bernard Norlain of the Air Force, former Director of IHEDN, and it begins with a preamble by Andre Lebeau, former President of the National Center for Space Studies (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), or CNES, the French equivalent of NASA. It is well known that France created an official organization for the study of UFOs under CNES, first called GEPAN in 1977 and later SEPRA in 1988 -see From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO studies in France (.PDF 105K)-. In Mar-2007, at www.cnes-geipan.fr, CNES published parts of the French UFO sighting database with more than 100,000 pages of witness testimony, photographs, film footage and audiotapes of officially investigated cases, collected since 1954.
6. The 1955 book "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects" (full text e-book, ISBN: 096653123X) by Edward J. Ruppelt (head of the United States Air Force's Project Blue Book between 1951-1953 and later research engineer at Northrop Aircraft Company). Until you have read at least the last 2 chapters (Ch.16: The Hierarchy Ponders, Ch.17: What Are UFO's?), stop talking about UFOs.
7. Paul R. Hill's (aeronautical engineer and Chief Scientist-Manager at NASA's Langley Research Center who privately acted as an informal citizens' clearinghouse of UFO-related data for over 2 decades) excellent book "Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis" Amazon src (written in the 1970s, published 1995) explains many things about the probable science/physics behind UFOs. If you only buy ONE book about UFOs, this should be it. Book reviews by Dr.Hal Puthoff and H.Ellis Ensle. It attempts to explain the apparently reactionless propulsion, lack of sonic boom, lack of overheating at high velocities, high accelerations, lack of stress under high acceleration, etc. His book is not pseudo-science. The speculation that he does make is minimal, but required, to conform to the observations.
8. Hypothesising that UFOs are ET vehicles, the next obvious question is "If extraterrestrials have already come to Earth, why don't they make themselves known?" (i.e. the famous "UFOs Land on White House lawn" scenario). Jim Deardorff (professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences at Oregon State University) offered the "leaky embargo" hypothesis in 1997, which argues that the aliens in charge are more ethical than we and wish to let us gradually know of their existence and presence, while providing "deniability" to those who can't yet handle that fact. A gradual acclimation will avoid threatening the governmental, financial, cultural and religious foundations on which we depend.
   In contrast to the "benevolent alien" approach, other researchers, particularly those studying the "alien abductions" phenomenon such as Dr. David M Jacobs (history professor), describe a rather disturbing situation where we humans are "victims of a widespread program of physiological exploitation, with breeding and hybridization programs".
9. Symposium on UFOs (1968) Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics of US Congress 29-Jul-1968, with all the "heavy-weight" scientists (Hynek, McDonald, Carl Sagan, Menzel etc) of that time expressing their views.
10. Stanton T. Friedman's (nuclear physicist and veteran UFO researcher / lecturer / ETH evangelist for the past 30+yr) paper The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Flying Saucers (.PDF 57KB) (1995), his statement before the Committee on Science and Astronautics of US Congress July-1968.
11. From a "conspiratorial" viewpoint, read the (disputed authenticity, leaked anonymously in 1985 and 1994) Majestic-12 docs 1948-1959. For those who don't know the background, it's claimed that in the aftermath of the crash of an extraterrestrial craft in 1947, near Roswell in New Mexico, USA, a small group known as Majestic-12 (or MJ-12) was set up to study the craft and the alien bodies. Stanton Friedman has published a book on the subject. The investigation team includes Robert M. Wood, Ph.D. (BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Colorado and a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell, a 43-year career at McDonnell Douglas managing research and development projects and over thirty years of investigation into UFOs) who began reconstructing the (MAJIC) Special Operations Manual SOM1-01 (see extra-terrestrial UFO-nauts section later in this page) in 1995.
12. A lot of what appears about UFOs on "big" media is misinformation. On the subject of media (TV, newspapers etc) coverage of the UFO subject, a good perspective is offered in journalist's Terry Hansen's The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up and Dolan's Getting Inside Your Head: Media, Mind Control, and Marginalization of UFOs. Furthermore, astrophysicist R.Haisch's Review of "SEEING IS BELIEVING: THE TRUTH ABOUT UFOs" by Peter Jennings, ABC-TV, 24-Feb-2005 by R.Haisch (.pdf 84KB) explains how, in the desire to appear "balanced", substantive witness reports are often countered by unsubstantiated pronouncements of "experts" who sound authoritative but do not necessarily know a great deal about the subject.
13. If you enjoy shifting through "raw data" and scientific analysis you can read: USAF's Project Blue Book - Special Report 14 (1955) (PDF 9.6MB) a quantitative cross-analysis of 3201 UFO sightings recorded between 1947 and 1953 performed by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract to USAF. Skipping over the initial misleading one-page summary and reading the actual data, reveals that 21.5% of the cases were "unknowns" (i.e. inexplicable, despite good data), that these unknowns shared no similarities with the identified cases (so that one could presume they were misidentifications of mundane objects) and that the better the quality (more and better qualified witnesses) the more probable for a case to classify as unknown! Also note General Bollender's 1969 memo that "reports of UFOs which could affect national security are not part of the Blue Book system" and Hynek felt "used and abused" when even after having consulted for USAF for so many years, "all the hardcore UFO cases, with pilot-UFO close encounters so close they could read writing on them, were going upstairs". And all Hynek was left with were reports of nocturnal lights.
    It was speculated for years that there was a secret UFO investigation that wasn't part of Blue Book. Now it's fact. In 1953 US Air Force issued Regulation 200-2, which instructed Air Force officers not to discuss UFO reports that were unsolved, and to classify the reports at restricted level. By December 1953, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a Navy-Air Force publication 146 (JANAP 146) which made the unauthorized release of UFO reports a crime under the Espionage Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Thereafter, UFO sighting reports would be investigated by the 4602 AISS. When they completed their investigation, the results were forwarded to ATIC at Wright-Patterson and BlueBook didn't receive those reports. So after 1953, US Air Force's Project Blue Book, ostensibly engaged in studying UFO reports, was in fact a public relations scheme whose main purpose was to convince the public that UFOs were all misidentifications of conventional objects. Finally, the "Condon Report" in 1969 was the excuse to close down BlueBook.

There have also been many notable persons -usually in advanced years, after retirement- to have publicly stated that UFO evidence is being suppressed. These have included Senator Barry Goldwater (US Senator and Republican candidate for President in 1964, US Air Force Brig.General, who was denied access the "Blue Room" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -where UFO/ET info is allegedly stored-), Admiral Lord Hill-Norton (former NATO head and chief of the British Defence Staff), Brigadier-General Arthur Exon (former commanding officer of Wright-Patterson AFB), Vice-Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter (first CIA director), astronauts Gordon Cooper and Dr.Edgar Mitchell, US General Curtis E. LeMay (head of the Strategic Air Command in the 1960's), former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer, the authors of the 1999 French COMETA Report (top French Generals and scientists), the 2001 Disclosure Project top-secret military/intelligence/government witnesses testifying on the subject of UFO/ET and many others.

To quote Dr. James MacDonald, past head of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, "If you are not interested or concerned about the UFO matter, you are simply uninformed." General Arthur Exon stated: "Everyone from the White House on down knew that what we had found was not of this world within 24 hours of our finding it". On 25-Sep-2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada's Defence Minister from 1963-67, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head." "We are in the curious situation today that our best modern physics and astrophysics theories predict that we should be experiencing extraterrestrial visitation, yet any possible evidence of such lurking in the UFO phenomenon is scoffed at within our scientific community," contends astrophysicist Dr.Haisch. "You simply cannot dismiss the possibility that some of these UFO sightings are actually sightings from some object created by an advanced civilization, a civilization far out in space, a civilization perhaps millions of years ahead of us in technology. You simply cannot discount that possibility." Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku (NYU Professor and one of the String Theory originators).

Introductory and General background (start here)

Quick Technical Overview: What we think we know about UFO's

Information about UFO's from thousands of eye witnesses reports and physical evidence such as landing marks, photos, videos and radar data, has been compiled over the last 60 years. Such descriptions have been put in official documents as early as 1947. On 28-Oct-1947 General (USAF) George Schulgen, then Asst. Chief of Staff for Air Intelligence, issued a classified draft order (portions reprinted below) for American intelligence operatives throughout the world directing them to gather all potentially relevent information about "flying saucers":

"An alleged "Flying Saucer" type aircraft or object in flight, approximating the shape of a disc, has been reported by many observers from widely scattered places, such as the United States, Alaska, Canada, Hungary, the Island of Guam, and Japan. This object has been reported by many competent observers, including USAF rated officers. Sightings have been made from the ground as well as from the air.
[snip]
Commonly reported features that are very significant and which may aid in the investigation are as follows:

1. Relatively flat bottom with extreme light-reflecting ability.
2. Absence of sound except for an occasional roar when operating under super performance conditions.
3. Extreme maneuverability and apparent ability to almost hover.
4. A plan form approximating that of an oval or disc with a dome shape on the top surface.
5. The absence of an exhaust trail except in a few instances when it was reported to have a bluish color, like a Diesel exhaust...
   [snip]

The first sightings in the U.S. were reported around the middle of May. The last reported sighting took place in Toronto, Canada, 14 September. The greatest activity in the U.S. was during the last week of June and the first week of July..."
-- Brig.Gen. Schulgen "Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft" 28-Oct-1947, a/k/a Schulgen memo [must-read!], obtained under FOIA from the US National Archives in 1985. What's remarkable about this order is that it goes into very specific details about saucer construction.

Based on 60yrs of observations and data, UFO investigators have been able to arrive at several conclusions and theories, as presented in books and scientific papers, summarized below:

The Kelsey Bay, Vancouver Island BC, Canada 1981 UFO photographed by chance by Mrs. Hannah McRoberts, as a typical domed disk (few details, blurry, due to distance) [full size photo and story, more] Since the first test of an UFO photo authenticity is the good reputation of the photographer, and she happened to be the niece of one of Canada's leading nuclear engineers, APRO, Dr.Harder and Dr.Haines (a retired NASA scientist, who in 2000 established NARCAP) took an interest in the photo. An analysis is published in the scientific report of the Sturrock Panel 1997. PS: This domed disk reminds me of one of the Herrmann, Charleston USA, 1980 UFO photo (FWIW: Herrmann said he was "abducted" 4 times between 1978 and 1983, had encounters with "Men in black" and published a book with Wendelle Stevens. On 10-Nov-1981 he was fired from his position as a Children's Church Teacher, kicked out of his church and reportedly someone tried to burn his house down. In later interviews, he wanted nothing to do with UFOs anymore, which he considered "satanic").

Costa Rica 1971: A large disk / shallow cone was auto-photographed in 1971 by a Costan Rican government mapping plane during an aerial mapping mission. People have seen objects emerge from the lake in subsequent years. For an in-depth analysis of this photograph, see "Photo Analyses of an Aerial Disc Over Costa Rica" by Dr.Richard Haines and Dr.Jacques Vallee. Two similar UFOs, described as huge 600-700ft conical hats, were reported in a multiple witness sighting by US Navy aircraft in Sep-1950 over Korea [more].

Grangemouth, Scotland UK 1991 UFO Photo at Polmont Reservoir, (near Bonnybridge). The photograph shows the underside of a disk-shaped UFO, with a noticeable luminous "corona discharge" at the bottom and outer rim. [full story and photo] Some UFO investigators speculated that the neon-light-like glowing areas at its base reveal the position of its 3 propulsion units, placed at exactly 120° apart, to direct the thrust ("thrust-vector control").

1. Shapes/Types: Most UFOs are symmetrical objects with spherical (e.g. San Jacinto, CA 1988 "very bright sphere, much like a large reflective mirrored ball -like ball bearing- with a distorted area opposite from its direction of travel", more), lenticular disk (e.g. like two metal soup bowls glued together rim to rim), flat bottomed disk (e.g. photos by Trent, Heflin (.pdf), Kosina, France 1980, Nagora photo1, photo2), disk with dome, elliptical (oval, egg), conical (e.g. Yacanto Argentina 1960), cylindrical or triangular shapes. Some UFOs have a equatorial ring and are referred to as having a "saturn" shape (e.g. Trindade island 1958 UFO).
2. Sizes: Range from 0.6m orbs/spheres (almost certainly pre-programmed or remote-controlled sensing devices) to over 600m for the motherships. The disks range 3-300m in diameter, typically 9m (30ft). Spheres and saturn-like objects (sphere with a "ring" at the equator) are in 2-15m range. Triangles 3m-300m per side (although some of those sightings in the 1990s may have been of the rumored TR-3B ASTRA 600ft / 180m wide US black-project craft). Oval/ellipsoidal craft 6m axial, 3m cross diameter. Conical "coolie hat" types about 200 meters(e.g. Costa Rica 1971, Korea 1950). There is also a "dirigible" version of 100m. For reference, a Boeing 747 "Jumbo jet", one of the largest passenger aircraft, has a length of 70m (230ft) and wingspan of 60m (195ft).
3. Merging: spheres and saucers leave and enter large cylinders, dirigibles and cones, i.e. smaller round-/discoid-/egg-shaped craft (thought to be "scout ships" / "earth excursion vehicles", as they are typically seen near the ground) are dispatched from larger cigar-/cylinder-/conical shaped "mother ships" (which typically stay at high altitudes), comparable to our "aircraft carrier paradigm", dispatching various aircraft, helicopters or UAVs.
4. Wobble: while hovering, many round craft exhibit a "wobble" (about 30°, ±15° from centerline), a rocking motion, like a gyroscope or a top (other expressions used by witnesses: "like a boat at anchor on water" or "tipping right and left").
5. Rotation/Spin: Typically anti-clockwise. Often observed to have rotary components on the underside or around the perimeter of the craft, like a rotating ring at the circumference. The rim is described as rotating independently from the central part or cupola, which remains stationary. Occasionally the two parts rotate in opposite directions.
6. Jitter: at times they vibrate heavily. UFO motion is jerky and jittery at low speed. This could be an optical effect rather than a real jitter.
7. Radiation: UFOs radiate intense microwaves and an incredibly strong magnetic field (these are NOT healthy), probably related to their flight mechanism. EM effects observed: often electrical circuitry and radio communications are interrupted, batteries are burned out, gasoline engines stop, compass swinging wildly. Absense of heat near a UFO only mild sensation of warmth, so not much infra-red radiation. The surfaces of the UFO are not very hot, nothing is at a red heat.

   UFOs often emit visible light when airborne (occasionally very bright, eye witnesses describe it as "dazzling" or "blinding" or "bright as a magnesium flare" or "it lit up the entire landscape" etc); emit invisible electromagnetic energy at the high frequency end of the spectrum, including UV and soft X-rays, as shown by the many cases of skinburn and eye irritation. Occasionally UFOs emit harder radiation like mild gamma rays, which have led to symptoms of radiation sickness in witnesses who have closely approached the objects. (e.g. Michalak, Falcon Lake, Canada 1967 CE2 and medical effects, more). However, lasting radioactivity, which would indicate the presence of radiation beyond the gamma band, has rarely been found at landing sites.

8. A "corona", i.e. a luminous plasma (ionised air) is produced around specific areas of the UFO, probably created by the intense EM radiation (radiant ionisation).
9. UFO illumination and colors: Visible colors come from the ionized atmosphere surrounding the UFO, not from the UFO itself, except by reflection from the UFO's surface. The silvery grey with an aureole of dark red is seen at "low energy" mode of operation, when the object is stationary or traveling very slowly. Then comes the vivid red. The intense ultraviolet that gives the skin burns, when the telltale strong blue of nitrogen ionization is present. At higher accelerations the white, blue and purple appear.
   • In daylight: "metallic" brightly polished silver to dull aluminum. Flat-bottoms are darker underneath in a central circular area or in annular ring near the rim.
   • At night:
     1. Illumination: Halos, neon-like, solid color luminosity emanating from an envelope of air around the metallic hard surfaces. Solid color in red, orange, amber, yellow, blue, blue-violet, brilliant white singly and in combinations. Though sometimes described as "flames", close observations have shown that this luminosity does not have a high temperature, and it probably represents an ionization of the local atmosphere similar to what occurs in a neon light. In saucers and saturns the halo concentrates near the "ring" rim more intensely below than above it. Usually emits luminosity in a shape which depends on its current maneuver, such as an ice cream cone halo underneath the saucer. The big cylindrical mother ships sometimes have great white cloud.
     2. Running lights in many patterns: blinking, theater marquee, Xmas tree.
   Note: It has been noticed in UFO sightings that the object when stationary gives out less light than when in motion. This rule, of course, is not invariable. UFOs emanating no light at all have been seen moving at high speed, while others glowing brightly have been seen to hover and even to land.
10. Flight Characteristics: UFOs can travel through air, underwater (a/k/a USOs, unidentified submerged objects) and in the vacuum of space (10m disks observed as high as 200 miles from surface of Earth, so they are space-capable).
11. Maneuvers: Hovering at any altitude is common. UFOs hover close to the ground for long times instead of landing. UFOs tilt to perform all maneuvers: they sit level to hover, tilt forward to move forward, tilt backward to stop, bank to turn. The different maneuvers include:
    • acute-angle turn with rapid stop at the vertex
    • sudden reversal of direction
    • bank and turn - exactly like conventional aircraft
    • high-angle (typically 45°), high acceleration ("like a bullet") departures on ballistic-arc trajectories
    • falling leaf or UFO-rock like a coin falling in water (where the object swings like a pendulum from side to side while descending; this maneuver to lose altitude was first used in human flight by Paul Hill, the NASA engineer who invented the flying platform and wrote one of the most interesting books about UFOs)
    • silver-dollar wobble - like a coin with a slow spin on a flat surface. This maneuver is consistently observed at the end of a rapid descent as the UFO initiates hovering
12. Landing: UFOs do a belly-landing or othertimes simply hover at a very low altitude, producing swirled down grass rings / nest-like imprints ("saucer nests"), annular rings of heat-damaged soil with chemical and physical alterations, subsoil burning of plant roots and unusual effects on the exposed plants (such as changes in the chlorophyll). In other cases, they extend retractable landing gear of some sort, usually legs with footpads. It is these landing gear which have left marks on the ground amenable to pressure analysis, and from which we have been able to estimate the probable weight and density of some UFOs.

Above: Example of a "ring" of scorched ground from a UFO landing trace case. Over 2500 such cases of damage to the soil and plants where a UFO landed have been documented since 1969 by Center for Physical Trace Research. A formally investigated case was at Trans en Provence, France, 1981, but such cases go far back, e.g. grass roots charred and skinburn of a Florida scoutmaster in 1952 is documented in Ruppelt's book Chap.13. Below: Example of "saucer nest" of swirled grass where a UFO landed (Tully Australia 1966, details)

13. UFOs observed near or on the ground consistently fall in these groups:
    1. Smaller hemispherical (= dome, helmet, mushroom) / spherical / conical objects, from 1.2-4m (4ft-12ft) in diameter, sometimes with external "vents" or "extensions". They rarely touch the ground but remain stationary 1-5ft above ground surface. Generally leave behind circular areas which are depressed, burnt or dehydrated.[example]
    2. Small egg-shaped objects 2-2.5m (6-8ft) long [drawing or see photo from Dec-2006 MA, USA case], which fly with the long axis vertical. An elongated cylinder without external appendages, that flies in the direction of its axis.
    3. Oval/Egg-Shaped Objects, 5-6m (16-20ft) [drawing] in length with visible landing legs, generally four, on occasion six. These make ground contact, leaving burnt areas, imprints, some tree damage. Small humanoid beings are often reported. Weight: 30 tons for an oval craft 6 meters axial, 3 meters cross diameter. This is 965kg/m³, which is like our modern nuclear submarines, but is more than our jet airplanes.
    4. Typical Flying Saucer, 3m - 12m (avg 9m/30ft) in diameter. They land, leaving burnt or depressed areas with an irregular configuration. Larger disks typically have retractable landing gear, three legs in equilateral triangle of 6m sides, with rectangle or 15x30cm footpads with X-print, for a 12 meter disk.
    (ref: CPTR's 30yr of physical trace case reports)
14. Wakes: dirigibles and cylinders have plume-like wakes when accelerating rapidly or moving at high speeds. These wakes are gray to straw-colored in daylight, flame-colored at night. UFOs can move slow at 100 mph without generating a wake.
15. Speed: Up to 9000mph [4Km/s, Mach 12] (from military radar observations) in the Earth's atmosphere, as well as being able to hover motionless in the sky.
16. Acceleration: Can accomplish 100g (Note this 100g figure is what is seen by external observers. The ship itself and its occupants may be in the local inertial frame LIF motion of "free-float" i.e. zero g just like our astronauts orbiting the Earth with rockets switched off and no spinning of the craft). The dazzling maneuver performance of UFO scout ships seems to result from their being over-designed for the investigation of planet Earth. If the UFO mission is stellar and planetary exploration, the high-g capability they demonstrate would enable them to explore giant planets with gravity on the order of 100 times Earth gravity. Exploring Earth is UFO PLAY.
17. Sound: hum, buzz, whine at close quarters (most UFO "sounds" heard by humans are believed to be due to the pulsed microwave frequency energy stimulating the auditory nerve, not pressure of sound waves to the eardrum). Sound rises in both pitch and intensity seconds before and during take-off. Steady motion either a light swish-of-air sound or running absolutely silent. Operation is almost completely silent compared to conventional jets and rocket engines. No shock waves or 'sonic boom' are produced even when the UFOs are traveling several times the speed of sound. One theory for this is manipulation of the acceleration-type force field, resulting in a constant-pressure, compression-free zone without shockwave in which the vehicle is surrounded by a subsonic flow-pattern of streamlines and subsonic velocity ratios; another theory is using a magnetic field to part the ionised air (plasma) around the UFO.
18. Propulsion: Paul Hill speculated that the method of propulsion utilizes a force field that works on metals as well as non-metals. This field is a non-shieldable field much like gravity but can be repulsive as well as attractive. These fields bend and break tree branches, bump or slow automobiles spinning them out of control or tipping them over, stop people by force or knock them down. There is no jet propulsion. There is no ejection of propellant of any kind.
19. Disappearance: Rarely mentioned, this is probably the most disputed aspect of reported UFO behaviour. Most UFO researchers assume that UFOs accelerate out of the picture so quickly, that witnesses fail to notice. However, there are some few cases where "disappearance" or "invisibility" is more strongly suggested.

IMHO the fact that many of these observations, reported quite consistently for 60 years, do not conform to known physics is not the problem as skeptics suggest. Many have been suckered into this argument, that the observations have to comply with accepted physics before they can be accepted. This is untenable. If that had always been the criterion then physics would not have advanced one iota. The observations must be validated using other criteria, after which the physics must conform to these new observations, not vice versa.

References: Books by P.Hill, J.Vallee, J.McCampell, UFO illumination and performance, UFOlogy Chapter 2: The Vehicles, Typology of vehicles, NUFORC reports by Shape, Summary of UFO key points, Physical effects of UFOs upon people (.PDF), Odors from UFOs (.PDF), Landing trace cases, Interim Report 2004, analysis of UFO luminosity and other links of this page.

How and Where to Report A UFO

You can file a UFO sighting report with MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) and/or NUFORC Hotline (USA National UFO Reporting Center, but accepts international reports too), in addition to your country-specific UFO reporting centers (if any).

Other places which welcome direct UFO reporting for publication on the Web, are the UFO portals (such as HBCC, Ufologie.net and UFO-Casebook) and RENSE radio show.

Portals

• Focused on documenting UFO history
  • www.ufoevidence.org biggest portal on UFOs, with texts covering many aspects of the UFO phenomenon, featuring a database of ~400 UFO photos and sightings. HUGE amount of information, easy to navigate and good search facility. Hundreds of case files e.g. recent 8-Jan-2006 in Zdany, Poland (with car-engine stalling) or classic ones Rex Heflin, California USA on 3-Aug-1965 and PanAmerican DC-4 14-Jul-1952 and CE3 cases.
  • ufologie.net excellent portal in English and French language (8500 pages and 3700 images) with in-depth analysis, but not so easy to navigate and find info. Scientists taking position: Dr J. Allen Hynek, Prof. McDonald. Astronauts like Gordon Cooper. Its unique focus is URECAT, an elaborate UFO-occupant encounter a/k/a CE3 (close encounter of the 3rd kind, i.e. UFO-occupant sightings) catalogue e.g. Filiberto Caponi CE3 (Italy, 1993), Varginha, Brazil Apr-1997, as well as classic sightings e.g. RB-47 4-way confirmation 17-Jul-1957
  • NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) - By late 1969 NICAP was destroyed as an effective UFO research organisation, through infiltration by the CIA and FBI. Its extensive library is now online and updated and includes case-files, as well as papers such as UFO interference with vehicles, UFO sightings at ICBM sites and nuclear Weapons Storage Areas etc
  • PROJECT 1947 is a world-wide effort to document the origins of the modern UFO phenomenon. Research for the project has yielded many early-era UFO reports via the FOIA, newspaper articles and contemporary accounts.
  • UFO*BC focusing on the Canadian British Columbia UFO cases. Includes elaborate case-files.

• Focused on news-as-it-happens updates (as well as case histories)
• HBCCufo.org a constantly updated portal, focusing on the Canadian UFO research community. Includes elaborate case-files.
• www.ufocasebook.com portal with photo gallery BUT unfortunately due to re-scaling quite a few UFO photos are of poor quality vs the originals. Classic cases like Minot Air Force Base, seen by B-52 crew (1968), CE3s like Isla de Lobos, Uruguay 1972 and Mexico-Chihuahua disk crash and recovery. Has active forums.
• UFOINFO.com coverage of a wide range of UFO topics. Hosts Filer's files, Humanoid Sighting Reports, UFO News UK, Oz Files and more

Organisations

Civilian UFO organisations have always operated on a shoestring budget with all-volunteer resources, yet many of them managed to do remarkable work over the past 50yr.

The Zdany, Poland 8-Jan-2006 UFO Photos as an example of "flattened sphere with ring at the equator" Reportedly the object immobilized two cars, and was moving extremely swiftly and without noise. A series of photographs taken, read more in Zdany UFO photos and story. Some of the best recent UFO photos. Note: This object very much reminds me in shape -but not size- of the Japan Airlines JAL1628 1986 UFO (big doc!) (more compact version).

• UFO reporting, documentation and study
  • Mutual UFO Network - MUFON - The world's largest civilian UFO research organisation, MUFON describes its mission as "the systematic collection and analysis of UFO data, with the ultimate goal of learning the origin and nature of the UFO phenomenon." With news, weekly database reports (giving comparative tables of UFO reports), links to MUFON's regional sites, and a UFO Investigator's Manual. Also hosts the Bob Pratt archives. Note that MUFON is decentralised and I've found out that the regional MUFON Website are often more info-rich and usable than the main site.
  • National UFO Reporting Center by Peter Davenport, operates a 24/7 phone hotline accepting UFO-sighting reports for USA (since no "official" US government agency accepts UFO reports after USAF's Blue Book closed down in 1969). NUFORC's case briefs
  • CUFOS Hynek, past Chairman of the Astronomy department at Northwestern University and scientific consultant of USAF Project Blue Book, thought the UFO phenomenon had been the subject of misconceptions, misinformation, and an unscientific approach. To help rectify the situation Hynek and a group of selected scientists established the Center for UFO Studies "for those who wish to see positive scientific action taken to end a quarter of a century of misrepresentation and buffoonery". IUR, CUFOS' quarterly magazine, consistently publishes important and interesting articles and commentary. In addition, there's the Center's Journal of UFO Studies, ufology's only peer-reviewed journal, presenting the results of work by top people in the field.
  • BUFORA - British UFO Research Association Founded in the 1960s, BUFORA describes its main aim as being "to encourage, promote and conduct unbiased scientific research of UFO phenomena throughout the UK." The site includes articles, events, a downloadable UFO sighting report form, and publications such as an introductory guide to UFOs (.pdf 450KB)
  • cufon.org Computer UFO Network in USA. Read the Malmstrom AFB/nuclear ICBM UFO Incident
  • FUFOR The Fund for UFO Research, is a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization. Classic UFO Cases
• Political activism, disclosure, exopolitics etc
  • Coalition for Freedom of Information (CFI) a lobbying effort
  • The Disclosure Project is pushing for full disclosure and open Congressional hearings on the UFO/ET presence, including testimony of military/government persons, witnesses to UFO events and projects, with release from security oaths. I find Dr Steven Greer a bit weird, but many of the project's witness testimonies (see videos section later in this document) extremely compelling. See 6mo summary.
  • Paradigm Research Group a political activism organisation describes its mission as "dedicated to ending the government imposed truth embargo regarding an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race."

UFO TV documentaries / Videos reviewed

Bold = good i.e. highly recommended to watch
• Out Of The Blue: The definitive investigation of the UFO phenomenon (watch online GoogleVideo or YouTube) video documentary (2003), 1hr30min 353MB (GoogleVideo). (best "general background" UFO documentary I've seen sofar). Interviews with former astronauts (Gordon Cooper and Dr Edgar Mitchell), military pilots, radar operators, scientists. UFO initiatives by former US presidents Carter, Ford and Clinton etc. Briefly covers classic UFO incidents in US, Russia, Britain, France, Iran etc and studies like the French COMETA Report. (can't purchase directly, or from Amazon.com original stock of it has been sold-out!)
• Compilation of UFO Video Footage and Testimony privately-(home)-produced. No speaking at all, just 60 minutes of raw UFO footage (from a selection of over 200 clips) and 35 minutes of witness testimony. With 80's music in the background - Google Video (1hr 35min 329MB). Same in more (2hr28min) of the same (but other is better).
• The Disclosure Project Witness Testimony (2001) Googlevideo (2hrs), part 1 of 2 (59min 230MB) and part 2 of 2 (1hr 240MB). Two hours long video distillation from 400hrs of raw video footage of dozens of retired USA intelligence, government and military persons testimonies on the subject of UFO and US government coverup. Quick text summary (.html) sample of such testimonies given in 1999-2000.
  Also "The Disclosure Project 9-May-2001 National Press Club Conference" video (1hr56min), viewable online at GoogleVideo / YouTube or downloadable from npcc_full.wmv (70MB Windows Media Player) where 21 former US military and government witnesses came forward to testify on the subject of UFOs; to serve as catalyst for support of "full, open Congressional hearings on the UFO/Extraterrestrial presence subject, including witness testimony with release from security oaths" (NOTE: the NPCC video starts a bit "slow"/boring, you may want to fast-forward/skip the first 15min and go directly to Callahan-FAA-JAL1628 case)
• UFO Invasion - Rendlesham.wmv about the classic case of UFOs visiting the nuclear-armed US military base at Bentwaters (Rendlesham forest) Suffolk, UK. UFO activity for several nights, then UFO landing near the base on 27-Dec-1980. The UFO(s) seen at close-range by base personell (base deputy commander, 4 airmen) and even touched by security police officer: a smallish triangular/pyramid UFO 3m (9ft) per side, 2.5m (8ft) high; craft skin smooth like black glass; "hieroglyphic" symbols engraved on left front (see Penniston testimony at 27'-33'). Documentary by SciFi channel (220 MB) 1hr30min (2003)
• US Navy Pilot Graham Bethune describes the encounter with a huge 300ft discoid UFO in 1951 on the way back from a classified mission to Iceland: "We had 31 people on board and a psychiatrist, we all witnessed it". NPCC Googlevideo 2001 Fastwalkers Youtube 2006 (3min). [story and drawings, more]
• Pilot UFO sightings (44min) some interesting stuff of classic and lesser known pilot UFO cases, incl. commentary by Dr.R.Haines. Its weakness is the not so accurate video re-creations of cases. You'll need some background in this subject to appreciate this video, some people will find it boring. Or you can skip to 34'15" to 36'10" to hear retired NASA scientist Dr.Haines summarize.
• Rex Heflin (4min) interview about his famous 1965 UFO photos
• The Roswell Incident a documentary about the crash of a UFO in Roswell New Mexico in July-1947. Many interesting witness testimonies (Marcel Jr, Glenn Dennis the town's mortician) and some testimonies which have later been discounted (Frank Kaufman's and hoaxer Ray Santilli). At the end, includes complete footage of the fake Ray Santilli "Roswell Alien Autopsy" black-and-white video. (GoogleVideo 1hr4min 223MB)
• Kecksburg Exposed.wmv "the new Roswell", UFO crash in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania on 9-Dec-1965, documentary by SciFi channel (221 MB 1hr30min)
• Fastwalkers - Ufo and Alien Disclosure 2006 (Dec-2006) 1hr37min. Documentary consisting entirely of interviews with UFO researchers, whistle-blowers, witnesses etc. Several interesting testimonies, others questionable and with inaccuracies (e.g. a testimony claiming $1.7trillion/yr US black-budget?!) and some pretty "far out stuff" which I don't know what to make of... Other sources: buy DVD, or torrent.
• UFO - The Best Evidence Ever caught on tape Part 2 documentary. Various (not particularly close-up / great detail) video footage of the 1990s from US, NASA, Mexico, China, Germany, Israel etc. Technical commentary by Bruce Maccabee and a FX guy. (174MB 44min)
• NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries: UFOs" Vol 1-4 4xDVDs(Amazon or get from ED2K P2P). Slightly "sensationalistic" and some cases have later been considered untrue, but overall decent. Covers UFO sightings, alien abduction cases, crop circles etc. Features UFO segments, complete with re-creations of each incident by actors, interviews with the witnesses and/or abductees and UFO researchers, and occasional interviews with UFO skeptics. Overall a nicely put together and professionaly produced collection.
• ABC's Special - "Peter Jennings Reporting - UFOs: Seeing is believing" Feb-2005 (ED2K P2P 1hr27min 215MB). Mediocre, not too bad for a mainstream media production, but criticized: Friedman, Dolan and Haisch on ABC's UFO Special (.PDF). Dolan called it "spinning and deceiving" stuff (rightfully IMO, considering the treatment of Roswell and Friedman, although the first ~40minutes were OK). Others are more positive, e.g. Twitchell. Overall mediocre, your time would be better spent watching other videos in this list.
• Hon. Paul Hellyer At Exopolitics Conference (Toronto, 25-Sep-2005) Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defense Minister (period 1963-1967) endorses the validity of LtCol Philip J Corso's Book "They Day After Roswell", which states that an extraterrestrial "flying saucer" crashed in 1947 in New Mexico and that in the early 1960s he, Corso, distributed debris to US companies for reverse-engineering. (GoogleVideo 31min 109MB). Personally I find it hard to believe all of Col.Corso's claims.
• Apollo 11 "UFO" - Buzz Aldrin, GoogleVideo or YouTube 4min. Buzz Aldrin talks about the UFO which the Apollo 11 crew saw on their way to the Moon.
• Roswell debris tested comments by Dr Leir MD and Jesse Marcel Jr, a medical doctor/flight surgeon in reserve who served 1yr in Iraq in 2005 despite being 67yr old (son of Jesse Marcel Sr, the Intelligence Officer of the Roswell AirForce Base, who examined the debris field in July-1947)
• UFOs: 50 years of denial? (1997) video documentary, by the same people who later produced the state-of-the-art UFO documentary "Out of the Blue" in 2003, so basically superceded by it. Brief and concise introduction. Some new sighting stories, eye-witness testimonies etc. Features astronaut Dr.Mitchell, LtCol.Corso, Marcel on Roswell UFO crash and Robert Dean on the SHAPE/NATO Assessment on UFOs/ETs. Attempts to answer the question of how religion(s) and such beliefs would be affected if the existance of extra-terrestrial visitation (ETV) is acknowledged by officialdom. 171MB 44min ED2K P2P src
• UFO - Silently breaks up in several parts Silently breaks up in several parts (reminded me of Colonel Halt's description of Rendlesham incident "like dripping molten metal") 2.5min
• Lt Col Wendelle C Stevens, US Air Force (Ret) video interview (7min, 18MB) more about USAF monitoring operations of UFOs over the Arctic in 1947-1949 using B-29s specially equipped with photo and video equipment, as well as radiation detectors, magnetic detectors, and RF emission scanners. (Video is very poor quality). Earlier video interview by the same. Makes some extraordinary statements, that their project photographed 2-3 UFOs every month in the Arctic, while he was there. More in his interview (2003) .html with "far-out" stuff...
• British UFO Files (GoogleVideo 47min 356MB), a so-so documentary. If you can overcome the hurdle of the sensationalistic spooky music and narration in the beginning, it offers several interesting bits of info lateron, e.g. a 1952 sighting when 2 British pilots saw 3 flying saucers in formation with ground radar confirmation (on the 15'-21'). Physical landing trace case in 1952 with round scorch-marks left in the ground. And ofcourse the classic Bentwaters-Rendlesham case of 1980.
• UFO at Voronezh, SE Russia, 27-Sep-1989 landed, occupants reportedly seen by tens of witnesses; this story has been put in doubt by Boris Shurinov in his book "Les Ovnis en Russie".
• "UFO The Greatest Story Ever Denied" (1hr34min) or buy DVD from official website. A lot of duplication as it includes in verbatim many testimonies from DisclosureProject (see above), but also some unique/interesting bits and pieces.
• NBC's "Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?" (1999). So-so, spooky music and voice, with a few interesting bits and pieces. 1hr30min 850MB
• Billion Dollar Secret.wmv mediocre documentary about US's "black-projects" taking about $40bn/year. The most interesting part is on 25th min interview with researcher Boyd Bushman about anti-gravity research in USA. Covers black-project planes like the alleged "Aurora" etc. Tackles the UFO issue in connection with US military black projects (wrongly IMHO). Discovery Channel by Nick Cook, the Aviation Editor of Janes Weekly (Defense industry magazine) (116 MB 46min)
• UFOs The Secret Evidence (Oct-2005) another mediocre production with Nick Cook. It seems to imply that many UFO sightings were secret US military aircraft, like U2 (!!!) and CIA kept the "myth" going as a disinformation campaign as a smokescreen for the Soviets. His reasoning suggests that US government encouraged a "UFO craze" in US, among its citizens, but targeting Russians so they "wouldn't see classified US technology but a vehicle of outer space" (referring to the U2 times! how anyone could mistake a U2/SR71 or even F117/B2/etc for a flying saucer is beyond me!). Facts and animations are often totally wrong e.g. in the Zamora case it depicts a flying saucer instead of the ovoid (egg-shaped) craft it actually was (on the other hand e.g. Unsolved Mysteries mentioned earlier had a remarkably accurate re-creation). Still the video has a handful of interesting parts, bits of info here and there and a short interview with abductee Travis Walton. My conclusion is "to a kid with a hammer everything looks like a nail". (1hr41min 352MB)
• http://www.areadownload.com/video/ufo.htm a collection of short-medium duration UFO video footage, some interesting/authentic, some probably not

UFO video footage

The Trent Photos - McMinnville, Oregon USA (11 May 1950). Witness saw a metallic-looking, disk-shaped UFO. She called her husband, they located their camera, and he took 2 photographs of the object before it disappeared in the distance. "The object was coming in toward us and seemed to be tipped up a little bit. It was very bright-almost silvery-and there was no noise or smoke". The University of Colorado UFO study (a/k/a Condon Report) (1968) conclusion was "This is one of the few UFO reports in which all factors investigated, geometric, psychological, and physical appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disk-shaped, tens of meters in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within sight of two witnesses." [full study, photos and story] Note: Again, this is one of the classics, taken in a time when 1/ no computer-aided image-editing was possible, 2/ we can be reasonably sure no earth government had such a craft and 3/ investigated in the officially sanctioned Condon study. panorama of Trent's UFO photos.

Various UFO video footage. With modern computer-aided video editing capabilities it's impossible to be absolutely certain of the authenticity of ANY video/photo, unless one shoots it himself and participates in its development. Having said that, the following videos do check well with hundreds of witness descriptions:
• Classic disc ("flying saucer", Hynek "Daylight Disks" a/k/a DD)
• Domed disk UFO pacing F-16 and Soviet MIG, same from YouTube
• concorde.mpg disk pacing a Concorde
• Most probably a hoax, but interesting to watch to see the "wobble" effect: UFO over Mexico City 6-Aug-97.mpeg 2.6MB (alternatively at mexufo.html or ufoevidence file 864) on 6 August 1997. A UFO flying "low and slow" (real UFOs usually appear "fuzzy"/"blurry" with a "halo" around them due the ionised gas "plasma" they're surrounded with) over Mexico City. Researchers dispute its authenticity (src).
  The "rocking motion"/"wobbling"/"tipping to the right and left" of the flying saucer above, is similar with completely independant sightings, e.g. a similar craft seen by the Kalicki family in BC, Canada on 25-Aug-2005: story and video of family describing their sighting on TV.
• Mexico 01 hovering high, blurry/fuzzy
• Cylinder
• Cylinder chased by Soviet MIG-21 the video is probably real - but all the contextual "facts" are provided by the narrator are questionable
• Spherical/Drum/Egg-shaped/Ovoid
• Spheres over Mesa,AZ 25-Apr-2007
• Gulf Breeze slowmotion
• Bristol, TN 2-Aug-2003 (3min 6MB)
• Nevada 1991 (47sec 3.5MB)
• Orbs/Spheres of light (Hynek "nocturnal lights" a/k/a NL)
• Greifswald, East Germany 1990 (40sec 2MB)
• Phoenix Arizona, 5-Jun-2005 bright lights (orbs) dancing (51sec 12MB)
• Daylight footage of odd-looking like "6" object (2002) (which seems like the one photographed in Italy in 2-Jul-2004) and its analysis
• UFO - Night-time footage 2001
• UFO - Night-time footage two spheres
• Many more UFO videos (not all necessarily genuine) can be found at GoogleVideo and YouTube
• More UFO videos for free download

Documents, books, interviews, radio

• Freely downloadable
• French COMETA Report "UFOs and Defense: What should we prepare for?" (1999) Part 1 (.pdf 750KB) and Part 2 (.pdf 2MB). A study, not an "officially-endorsed" one, but signed by top French military officers and scientists, such as Prof.LeBeau former President of CNES (French NASA). (translated in English). See response to COMETA critics. Also USA: UFOS AND NATIONAL SECURITY journalist's Leslie Kean's article on the 3-year French COMETA study on UFO/ET
• Disputed authenticity Majestic 12 Documents a purported super-secret group formed in USA during late 1940s to handle the UFO issue. The incredible history of the establishment in 1947 by President Truman of a truly all-star cast to deal with the saucers and its non-human inhabitants. The first four Directors of Central Intelligence, the first Secretary of Defense, and several outstanding scientists and military leaders were part of the team. Particularly interesting, but again of disputed authenticity, is the "Special Operations Manual" SOM1-01: Extraterrestrial Entities and Technology, Recovery and Disposal, part1 (pdf, 2.7MB) and part2 (pdf, 2.8MB).
• Full-text of The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects book written in the 1955 by Edward J. Ruppelt, former head of the United States Air Force Project Blue Book during 1951-1953. Alternate sources: mirror1 or mirror2
• USAF Project Blue Book Archive downloadable .PDFs of over 12.000 UFO reports submitted between 1947-1969, of which over 1.500 were listed as "unknown". Declassified, but the BlueBook system excluded any "UFO sightings which affect national security" (e.g. UFO visits to nuclear ICBM facilities) anyway! Particularly interesting the the Blue Book Special Report 14 (1955).
• e-Book UFOLOGY I - A Major Breakthrough in the Scientific Understanding of Unidentified Flying Objects by James M. McCampbell (1973,1976). There is also "UFOLOGY II: Some final answers" published in 1998.
• www.theblackvault.com archives of over 440.000 declassified US government documents
• Ufopsi.com Library collection of UFO-related files coming from official sources, released through the freedom of information laws.
• Internet Sacred Text Archive (some good, many junk/hoaxes/urban legends etc) documents about UFOs, posted long ago on a pre-Internet bulletin boards
• Flying saucers are real Full-text of Major (Marine Corps) Donald Keyhoe's 1950 classic book
• Freely downloadable from Edonkey2000 P2P network (if you're a total newbie, use the free Emule sw client)
• ED2K C2C - 21-Jul-2004 - Stanton Friedman, Seth Shostak - The Great UFOlogy-SETI Debate.mp3, 108min edited (no-ads) "debate" between Stanton Friedman and SETI's Seth Shostak on C2C radio 21-Jul-2004 (50MB)
• ED2K The Disclosure Project Briefing Document (500 Pages Of testimonies) (2001).pdf (39MB)
• ED2K The UFO Enigma - Congressional Research Report - 1983.pdf (11.6MB)
• For buy
• "Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis", excellent book about the probable science behind UFOs by Paul Hill (Senior NASA engineer who acted as an informal citizens' "clearinghouse" in USA for UFO related info for 2 decades) ISBN: 1571740279. The book also comes highly recommended in a Frontispiece by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, and in a Foreword by retired McDonnell Douglas R&D manager Robert M. Wood. book review by Dr.Hal Puthoff, Summary of key points, Extract on UFO illumination and performance
• Lost science series by Leonard G. Cramp, a former British Aerospace engineer and former Vice President of the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), who has studied UFOs since the 1950s. He had the opportunity to meet with scientists, pilots and people from all walks of life in Britain, who had been involved in UFO close-encounters and gain access to information. Though flawed by his acceptance of the Adamski contactee tale, nevertheless provides an interesting account of his conception of the use of gravity and anti-gravity effects in relation to the appearance, behavior and effects of UFOs.
  1. Ufos & Anti-Gravity: Piece for a Jig Saw (1997)
  2. The Cosmic Matrix: Piece for a Jig Saw, Part 2 (Sep-1999)
  3. The A.T. Factor Advanced Time - Piece for a Jig saw, Part 3 (Oct-2001)
• Ether-Technology: A Rational Approach to Gravity Control by Rho Sigma
• Electrogravitics Systems: Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology by Thomas Valone
• David Hatcher Childress books on anti-gravity
• John Ackerman, To catch a flying star
• Stanton Friedman's books
  1. "Crash at Corona" a study of the alleged UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico in July-1947
  2. "Top Secret/MAJIC" by Stanton Friedman, examines the documentary evidence for the existence of a clandestine government group called "Majestic-12", formed in 1947 to deal with the remains of a crashed flying saucer near Roswell, New Mexico USA.
• "The UFO enigma: A new review of the physical evidence" by Peter A. Sturrock (Prof.Emeritus of Physics at Stanford Univ) - also available online
• The UFO Encyclopedia - This is THE reference for UFO related information. Jerome Clark, board member of the Center for UFO Studies and editor of the International UFO Reporter, has assembled the most comprehensive set of references on UFOs ever created. Includes an excellent entry on abductions by Bullard, and an exclusive examination of the radar-visual evidence in the RB47 case by Brad Sparks (a case which may be the first scientifically documented demonstration of UFOs engaging in intelligent behavior). Expensive, but worth it for any serious researcher.
• Search your favorite online bookstore (Amazon etc) for books by: J.Allen Hynek, Jerome Clark, Richard Hall, Stanton Friedman, Timothy Good, Richard M. Dolan, Don Berliner, Budd Hopkins, John Mack, Peter Sturrock, Steven Greer, Jim Marrs, Jean-Jacques Velasco, Jaques Vallee. Or better, visit Anomalia.org's english-language UFO books or "Serious UFO Studies" collection of UFO-related books at Amazon and choose from that shortlist.

Might be interesting, but haven't read them yet:

• The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials

Rendlesham forest - UK, 1980, case-specific sites

Pages devoted to the classic Rendlesham case (Suffolk, UK) UFOs landing during Christmas 1980.
• www.rendlesham-incident.co.uk
• Transcript of Penniston interview who examined and even touched the landed craft
• The Why? Files
• Skeptical analysis of Rendlesham Forest UFO case by Ian Ridpath, who suggests that they were all watching a ...distant lighthouse and triangular landing marks we made by ...rabbits. Judge for yourself

Note: A comment I'd like to add, is that I searched around in greek-speaking Internet (Greece and Cyprus) and found UFO sightings back in 1992-1993 of people encountering a smallish 3m triangular/pyramid UFO (one of them in Cyprus at very close range of a few meters!) as Jim Penniston drew it.

Notable / Miscellaneous / Personal sites with original research

• temporaldoorway.com/ufo/ scientific study of UFOs, by Mark Cashman Director of MUFON CT, has some unique material. Includes a Summary Of The UFO Phenomenon much like this document, a Critique of the Paranormal UFO Theories of Vallee and Keel and Collections Of UFO Cases.
• Towards a Typology of advanced unidentified vehicles by John Watson
• Stanton T. Friedman a nuclear physicist and Roswell investigator / veteran UFO lecturer / ETH evangelist. Articles: The UFO Challenge, UFOs: Challenge to SETI. His video lecture "Flying saucers are real" (2 DVDs, Vol.I and Vol.II 1993) on the UFO subject (somewhat poor video quality by today's standards). Listen to the "debate" UFOlogy and SETI with SETI's Dr. Seth Shostak on Coast2Coast radio on 21-Jul-2004 (ED2K link here). There are many more radio interview MP3 files of Friedman in ED2K P2P net, generally interesting (but obviously overlapping info). He has also co-authored 2 books "Crash at Corona" about the Roswell crash and "Top Secret MAJIC".
• Popular Mechanics: The 6 UFO Sightings THEY can't explain cases which continue to defy prosaic explanations (1998)
• WaterUFO.net concentrates in UFO water activity and physical influences on boats and water
• CanadianUFOReport.com Chris Rutkowski and Geoff Dittman.
• BibleUFO.net analysis of Bible and UFO connection
• CohenUFO.org select cases and moments from UFO history by Jerry Cohen, who saw one hover near his home in 1967
• Dr. James Deardorff personal research site on "Talmud Jmmanuel", presenting his case about Jesus Christ as a real historical person and ET contactee and UFO-biblical connections. He also embraces the Billy Meier contactee case.
• Dr. Bruce Cornet 3 Volume study of Black Triangles and other UFO activity
• uforth.com ad-hoc guide to UFO shapes (e.g. disc, cigar, cone, triangle) and configurations, with photos and sighting stories
• Nick Pope used to run the British Government's UFO project at the Ministry of Defence.
• Claude Poher, PhD in 1977 created and headed GEPAN, the official French UFO project at CNES.
• The Why? Files (UK), a bit confusing to navigate in the site and find info, but offers a very good collection of up-to-date material, photos, videos and stories, particularly on "black triangles".
• Richard Hall's The science of UFOs: Facts vs Stereotypes, UFOS: THE REAL QUESTION Statement by Richard Hall, Assistant Director of NICAP, for the Colorado UFO Project (a/k/a "Condon Report")
• Joe Ritrovato UFO Evidence from around the world photos and stories
• H.Ellis Ensle articles on the subject of UFOs
• David Sadler - If the Disc is ours a collection of stuff, needs cleanup
• stargate-chronicles.com by Clark McClelland, former ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet, Kennedy Space Center, Florida (1958-1992). His stories about UFOs, which he has studied for 50+ years.
• www.ufoartwork.com by Matthew Hurley. An interesting compilation of around 60 paintings and sculptures, from prehistoric to medieval times, which could be interpreted as depicting UFO and spacemen-type images. The site also includes UFO photographs from before 1947 (when the UFO phenomenon is often described as having begun) and some probably hoaxed and misunderstood images.
• CheckTheEvidence.com
• TinWiki.org "tin foil hat" Wiki, sponsored by "Above Top Secret" to consolidate info from thousands of posts.
• UFO Educators classes offered at educational institutions around the world
• Introduction: Flying Saucers as a Manifestation of Intelligence by Mac Tonnies with many good links and commentary, similar info with this page (2003)
• UFOs: The Psychic Dimension by David Pratt (Oct-2002)
• A UFO and alien photos collection with comments, some believed authentic, others hoax.
• Articles & Essays by Richard Dolan
What are the Triangles? By Richard M. Dolan

Forums / mailing-lists

• virtuallystrange.net UFO Updates mailing list archive. By UFO researchers around the world, for the study of UFO-related phenomena, over 67000 messages archived since Dec-1996. On the downside, overzealous censorship of posts by the list moderator Errol Bruce-Knapp.
• AboteTopSecret.com UFO sub-forum
• physicsforums.com - The UFO Napster thread
• sciforums.com "Who has actually seen an UFO?"
• CosmicView group at MSN focuses on "contactee" stories, to "help people understand WHERE extraterrestrials and UFOs come from - WHY they visit Earth and WHAT we can do about these visitors". Has a library with info (interviews, photos) from claimed contactees, such as Paul (Apolinar) Villa (US), Luciano Galli (Italy) etc
• Ed Mitchell UFO forum astronaut of Apollo14 mission, maintains an UFO forum on his website
• space.com Phenomena forum

Blogs

• UFO blogs aggregated on Kinja Web-page consolidating many blogs, feeds etc
• UFO Blog Coalition, Frank Warren, FallingLeaf, Kevin Randle, David Sereda

Directories of UFO sites

There are literally thousands of UFO sites around the world. There are also many great sites and blogs, which cover UFO issues, but not exclusively focused on the subject (understandably), but cover many other subjects. Anyway, it'd be impossible to list them all here, so here are some directories:
• UFOSeek Directory, community and news with over 55.000 UFO-related websites(!)

Radio broadcasts which regularly cover the subject of UFOs/ET etc

Guest quality varies widely, from some of the best scientists and most informed UFOlogists, to some of the craziest people you'll ever hear.
• www.renseradio.com Jeff Rense
• UFOs Through The Ages ...A Timeline This Is No Contemporary Phenomena!
• rense.com UFO case files
• www.coasttocoastam.com Coast to Coast

Scientific in-depth coverage

General

• ufoskeptic.org good collection of scientific information and info on UFOs, by Haisch, a professional astronomer
1. Extraterrestrial Visitation: The Speed-of-Light-Limit Argument
2. Are UFOs US gov "black-budget projects"?
3. Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation (.PDF) or in .html
• Dr. Bruce Maccabee Website a Research Physicist at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Silver Spring, Maryland since 1972 and veteran UFO researcher.
• Acceleration, Abstract: "Visual and photographic sighting of UFOs carrying out "impossible" high speed maneuvers are presented for study. For the first time we are able to quantify the amazing acceleration of these craft."
• Still In Default (.pdf), Abstract: "For nearly 40 years [more than 50] years, the science establishment has ignores the UFO problem, relating it to the domain of "true believers and mental incompetents" (a.k.a. "kook and nuts" [according to the former editor of Applied Optics magazine]). Scientists have participated in a "self-cover-up" by refusing to look at the credible and well reported data."
• Prof. James E. McDonald
  • statement and letter to UN dated 5-Jun-1967
  • Statement on UFOs to the Committee on Science and Astronautics of US Congress, 29-Jul-1968 (PDF) 55 pages
  • Science in Default: Twenty-Two Years of Inadequate UFO Investigations (27-Dec-1969)
  • Interview with McDonalds wife by Italian journalist Paola Harris
• NIDS UFO papers assorted material. NIDS is a private organization, which was set up in 1995 by a rich businessman from Las Vegas, Robert Bigelow, who happened to be interested in UFOs and related phenomena.
• Symposium on UFOs (1968) Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics of US Congress 29-Jul-1968, with all the "heavy-weight" scientists of that time. Artist drawn chart of UFO shapes submitted. This happened before the cover-up "Condon Report" conclusions were used to discontinue "official" UFO sighting reports (i.e Blue Book) and block further examination of the subject of UFOs for the next 35yr until today.

Journals

• JUFOS - The Journal of UFO Studies the annual, refereed publication by CUFOS
• IUR - International UFO Reporter, one of the most respected UFO magazines published in English language
• UFO Review bi-monthly free E-Zine (.pdf/.doc)
• MUFON Journal
• Flying Saucer Review international journal established in 1955

UFO databases and tools

• Ufomatics open source software tools for ufology

Civilian initiatives for collecting and evaluating UFO/UAP data

Data collection
• Project Hessdalen in Norway, a scientific investigation of UAP by teams from Norway and Italy, using CCD cameras, magnetometers etc. See also Italian Committee for Project Hessdalen
• Physics from UFO Data by Massimo Teodorani, Ph.D. - Astronomer. Proposed use of small telescopes connected to CCD detectors, spectrographs and photon-counting photometers to acquire data.
• OrbWatch monitoring the anomalous phenomena in the area of the western end of Lake Ontario, Southern Ontario, Canada. Has some excellent scientific material.
• Passive radar UFO detection proposal (.PDF) At the MUFON symposium in Denver, Peter Davenport presented his proposal for detecting UFO's in the near-Earth environment, using "passive" radar.

Data evaluation

• Roy Dutton formulated A Testable Astronautical Theory for UFO Events (March 2003), March 2001 which asserts that planet Earth is subject to regular, automated surveillance by ET craft, along certain "tracks"/paths. His other work includes Search for Evidence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the Solar System and Global UFO activity - A study of tactical techniques A Testable Astronautical Theory for UFO Events (March 2003) by T. R. Dutton CEng., MIMechE., MRAeS.

UFO physical evidence (e.g. landing trace cases, crash debris analysis etc, NOT crop-circles)

• The Center for Physical Trace Research (homepage) with Ted Phillips' database of over 2000 UFO physical landing trace cases from many countries. See Interim Report 2004
• Ubatuba Brazil 1957 UFO crash debris analysis
• Metal Artifact and UFO sighting at Isle Of Vaddo, Sweden, 11-Nov-1956 geometric piece of tungsten carbide was found after a close encounter in 1956.
• Descriptions of Roswell crash debris by civilian and military witnesses
• Purported Roswell-1947 UFO crash material analysis by Dr VenonClark 1997
• Physical Evidence Related to UFO Reports, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Workshop Proceedings, New York, Oct-1997 (also available in print amazon src)
• CE2 and frustrated science by Jerome Clark. Why there has been so little investigation of physical landing traces

UFO physics/science/technology (propulsion etc) i.e. Electrogravitics / EAD/EMD and MagnetoHydroDynamics, ZPE

UFO Propulsion and Energy generation: One can look into Electrogravitics, Field Resonance Propulsion, Field Dependant Propulsion, MagnetoAeroDynamics, Zero Point Energy / ZPF and articles by Haisch, Puthoff, Rueda, et al. Also attempts to explain probable UFO physics by Paul R. Hill and Leonard G. Cramp (see Books section earlier).
• Extract from Paul Hill's book "Unconventional Flying Objects: A Scientific Analysis"

There also are publications by Haisch, Jack Sarfatti, Hal Puthoff, Paul E. Potter and others. Some seem "far out" to me, but judge for youself:

• HOLT, A. C. (NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tex.) AIAA-1980-1233 SAE, and ASME, Joint Propulsion Conference, 16th, Hartford, Conn., June 30-July 2, 1980, AIAA 8 p.
• NASA - Warp Drive, When? FAQ
• NASA Break Through Propulsion Physics
• merlib.org's UFO physics and UFO back-engineered page
• Faster Than Light Physics Advanced Gravity edited by Eduardo Valencia
• JP Petit (French) homepage about MagnetoHydroDynamics
• EHD/EAD Electrogravitics Research and Experiments
• UFO Propagation - by Paul E Potter MHD, Fluid Dynamics, ElectroChemistry, Vortical Implosion, ElectroKinetics, Plasma propulsion
• Perhaps the speed of light isn't the limit anymore, see The speed of gravity: Repeal of the speed limit 'Experimental Repeal of the Speed Limit for Gravitational, Electrodynamic, and Quantum Field Interactions', T. Van Flandern and J.P. Vigier, Found.Phys. 32(#7), 1031-1068 (2002)
• Demonstration of a working invisibility cloak by scientists at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering
• UFO Onion drive system by Paul E Potter
• StarDrive.org UFOs and the new physics by physicist Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D.
• Flying Saucers Explained by John Walker 31-Aug-1997, FWIW offers some rather far-fetched theories (in my opinion UFOs are "nuts-and-bolts" advanced machines)
• Figures from "Advanced Magnetic Propulsion Systems" monograph by Dr Jan Pajak (1990, ISBN 0-9597698-9-7)
• Qualight Systems LLC library with texts on electrogravitics, electrokinetics, electrohydrodynamics etc, based on work by scientist Thomas Townsend Brown

General Literature about ETI / ETV (publications in journals etc)

• Dyson, Freeman J. (1960) Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation Abstract Paper
• Hart, Michael H. (1975) Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth Abstract Paper
• Dyson, Freeman J. (1979) Time without end: Physics and biology in an open universe Abstract Paper
• Tipler, F. J. (1980) Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist Abstract Paper
• Brin, G. D. (1983) The Great Silence - the Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life Abstract Paper
• Drake, F. D. (1985) A comparative analysis of space colonization enterprises Abstract Paper
• Papagiannis, M. D. (1985) An infrared search in our solar system as part of a more flexible search strategy Abstract Paper
• Wesson, Paul S. (1990) Cosmology, extraterrestrial intelligence, and a resolution of the Fermi-Hart paradox Abstract Paper
• Scheffer, Louis K. (1994) Machine Intelligence, the Cost of Interstellar Travel and Fermi's Paradox Abstract Paper
• Falk, D. (1995) Brain Evolution in Dolphins, Humans and Other Mammals: Implications for ETI Abstracts Paper
• Oro, J. (1995) The Chemical and Biological Basis of Intelligent Terrestrial Life from an Evolutionary Perspective Abstract Paper
• Arkhipov, A. (1995) A Search for Alien Artifacts on the Moon Abstract Paper
• Ashkenazi, M. (1995) Will ETI Be Space Explorers? Some Cultural Considerations Abstract Paper
• Klein, H.; Farmer, J. (1995) Status of the Search for Life on Mars Abstract Paper
• Steel, D. (1995) SETA and 1991 VG Abstract Paper
• Weiler, H. (1996) The probability of 1991 VG Abstract Paper
• Steel, D. (1998) The Fermi paradox and 1991 VG Abstract Paper
• Livio, Mariov (1999) How Rare Are Extraterrestrial Civilizations, and When Did They Emerge? Abstract Paper
• James Annis (1999) An Astrophysical Explanation for the Great Silence Abstract Paper
• Vladimir A. Lefebvre, Yuri N. Efremov (2000) Cosmic Intelligence and Black Holes Abstract Paper
• Musso, Paolo (2001) On the last terms of Drake Equation: the problem of energy sources and the "Rare Earth Hypothesis" Abstract Paper
• Godfrey Louis, A. Santhosh Kumar (2003) Cometary panspermia explains the red rain of Kerala Abstract Paper
• Horvath J. E. (2003) On gamma-ray bursts and their biological effects :a case for an extrinsic trigger of the Cambrian explosion ? Abstract Paper
• Beatriz Gato-Rivera (2003) Brane Worlds, the Subanthropic Principle and the Undetectability Conjecture Abstract Paper
• Hoyle, F.; Whickramasinghe, C. (2003) Astronomy or biology? Abstract

Official (government-sponsored) studies

• USAF's project Blue Book Special Report 14 1955 (PDF 9.6MB) with quantitative scientific cross-analysis of over 3200 UFO sightings
• Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (1968) (a/k/a "Condon_Report"), Dr. Edward U. Condon, Scientific Director. A 2-yr study by the University of Colorado, sponsored by USAF and CIA. The body of the study contains useful data, but the conclusion written by Dr.Condon himself can only be viewed as a shameless cover-up. Its credibility was diminished when it was discovered that its conclusions had been reached before any research was actually done (the surprising thing was that this had actually been put on paper as an official memo). In contrast to the negative attitude of the study director, Dr. Edward U. Condon, the body of the final report showed that about 30% of the cases studied were left without explanation. Its "conclusions" are still used as an excuse to block re-opening and public scientific investigation of the UFO phenomenon, since 1969!
• UK Ministry of Defence Study on UFOs (2000) (UAPs), released in May-2006 under FOI act. more. press release: "UFOs are real!" ... but "There is no evidence that (they are) "solid" objects which could cause a collision hazard", but instead ... balls of plasma (charged boyand gaseous mass)... A critique (lengthy one) of the CONDIGN Report can be found here
• From GEPAN to SERPA: Official UFO Studies in France (.PDF 105KB) by Gildas Bourdais

Notable scientists position on UFOs

Dr. Peter A. Sturrock, Professor of Space Science and Astrophysics and Deputy Director of the Center for Space Sciences and Astrophysics at Stanford University; Director of the Skylab Workshop on Solar Flares in 1977

"The definitive resolution of the UFO enigma will not come about unless and until the problem is subjected to open and extensive scientific study by the normal procedures of established science. This requires a change in attitude primarily on the part of scientists and administrators in universities." (Sturrock, Peter A., Report on a Survey of the American Astronomical Society concerning the UFO Phenomenon, Stanford University Report SUIPR 68IR, 1977.)

"Although... the scientific community has tended to minimize the significance of the UFO phenomenon, certain individual scientists have argued that the phenomenon is both real and significant. Such views have been presented in the Hearings of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics [and elsewhere]. It is also notable that one major national scientific society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, set up a subcommittee in 1967 to 'gain a fresh and objective perspective on the UFO phenomenon.'

In their public statements (but not necessarily in their private statements), scientists express a generally negative attitude towards the UFO problem, and it is interesting to try to understand this attitude. Most scientists have never had the occasion to confront evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon. To a scientist, the main source of hard information (other than his own experiments' observations) is provided by the scientific journals. With rare exceptions, scientific journals do not publish reports of UFO observations. The decision not to publish is made by the editor acting on the advice of reviewers. This process is self-reinforcing: the apparent lack of data confirms the view that there is nothing to the UFO phenomenon, and this view works against the presentation of relevant data." (Sturrock, Peter A., "An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1987.)

Recently, Dr. Sturrock reported that the journal SCIENCE has agreed to publish "well penned" papers on UFOs.

Abduction phenomenon

• Dr. John Mack psychiatrist, Harvard professor (passed away in 2005) investigated over 100 abductees. PBS interview
• Budd Hopkins, investigating the issue since 1975 and has worked with 100s of abductees
• David M Jacobs, PhD history professor, wrote the book "The threat". I found his book's theories hard to accept.
• Abduction Information Center by John Velez
• Whitley Strieber
• Questionable book "Above Black: Project Preserve Destiny" by Dan Sherman, gives another perspective about the possible explanation behind abductions
• Thomas E. Bullard interview

Skeptics

• Al Lawson
• Dr. Susan A Clancy, psychologist, studied the abduction phenomenon and is a skeptic. Criticized by B. Hopkins and also S.Friedman who thinks she did a lousy job and if his critique of how she conducted her research and managed to get all the case facts wrong in her book is accurate, I'm inclined to agree. (so perhaps not the brightest bulb, but at least judging from Jennings ABC she is an attractive woman :-)
• Carl Sagan on alien abductions

And on the following cases of multi-witness, abductions (none of which were abducted while asleep btw):

• Allagash case
• Travis Walton website
• Betty and Barney Hill

Crop circles / glyphs

Probable or confirmed fakes / hoaxes / myths / misconceptions which gained wide publicity

Skeptics and Prozac explanations

• "Misperception/Hoax/Hallucination (MHH) hypothesis", i.e. all reports of UFOs are actually misidendifications of known or unknown natural phenomena or man-made craft or witnesses are lying, in those cases where observation conditions rule out misidentification. Afterall, if we got visited by aliens, they would have held a press conference and ask to speak to THEM, wouldn't they?
  • Alan Hale: An Astronomer's Personal Statement on UFOs summarizes nicely the usual arguments for physical evidence
  • UFOs: A Skeptical View by Tim Printy, lots of content but quite a bit of fact-twisting IMHO. At least he goes into case-specifics, like the case of supposed interception by a disk-shaped UFO of a dummy ICBM warhead fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1964. Has links to several other skeptical pages.
  • Royston Paynter's Scientific skepticism, UFOs and the flying saucer myth offers a "UFO Skeptic's Toolkit" (outdated and many external links don't work). Many articles do "research by proclamation", some are legit, but quite a few are mostly junk...
  • CSICOP - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, a hardline debunking group. Their UFO critique was headed by Phil Klass, who had a habit of unnecessarily insulting or ridiculing witnesses. My impression was their "investigators" operate on the close-minded premise "it can't be, therefore it isn't", not to mention that they typically have no knowledge of the subject. But, judge for yourself...
  • Phil Plait's "Bad Astronomy" very bad Astronomy indeed ...
  • National Capital Area Skeptics has done some great work in compiling its library and makes it available over the WWW
  • James Oberg, see Failure Of The 'Science' Of Obergian Debunking
  • SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) people: astronomers Dr. Seth Shostak, Dr. Jill Tarter (who naively described in Peter Jenning's show that she mistook the Moon for a UFO!) etc. The point is, we really don't know what physics an advanced civilization might use... quantum entanglement, gravity waves or who knows what... Anyway, even if radio SETI is not looking at the right place, still radio telescopes are a window to the universe.
• "Psycho-Social Hypothesis (PSH)" i.e. "people's need to believe in XYZ, and they make things up" theorists can be quite enjoyable, typically social scientists engaging in extensive literal excercises, trying to put UFOs with mermaids, monsters and fairies. But read Jerome Clark's take on Psychosocialbabble and more on PSH, before taking PSH too seriously:
  • Magonia from UK
  • www.flyingsaucery.com by 2 fortean researchers from UK

Comic relief: Ufostupidity by "debunkers" (pseudo-skeptics a/k/a "Flat Earth Society" members)

There is a real difference between being a "skeptic" (in which you approach UFOs with an objective "open-mind" and regard ALL beliefs about UFOs skeptically, including your own) and a "debunker" (in which you approach UFOs with a completely closed mind that examines every case with a prearranged agenda designed to "prove" that every UFO case is explainable, and you simply ignore or twist the actual evidence to prove your point).

I find particularly amusing the lunatic fringe among them (skepticultists, skeptopaths) whose claims are, evidently, on a par with geocentricism and the flat Earth ideas. Yet these people are quoted in the Media which want to appear "balanced". More about the tactics of "debunkers" in Zen . . . And the Art of Debunkery. Here are a few examples which combine ignorance with strong bias:

• BBC Science on UFOs: Why I believe UFOs are bunk, by Science Editor David Whitehouse, PhD (in radio-astronomy)
• The Skeptic's Dictionary on UFOs/ETs by Robert Todd Carroll, PhD (in Philosophy whose doctoral dissertation was titled "The Common-sense Philosophy of Religion of Bishop Edward Stillingfleet, 1635-1699")
• Michael Shermer, PhD (in History of Science), publisher of SKEPTIC Magazine, is a professional skeptic/debunker about all sorts of different subjects (I guess we all have to make a living somehow :-). Witty and amusing e.g. in his video, but he obviously knows nothing about UFOs.
• www.debunker.com/ufo.html The UFO Debunker's page
• The Klass Files by Phil Klass, really funny stuff. Read Klass vs UFOs. IMHO, Klass not only offered weak arguments, but also didn't have much class, as he systematically practiced character assassination (see new Klass letter found) and twisted and bended facts to suit his purpose. Even the FBI disliked Klass. As far as I can tell, he was either 1/ an old man looking for the attention in controversy or 2/ thinking he was performing what he perceived to be his "patriotic duty" by trying to "debunk" something, which according to officially sanctioned "reality" shouldn't exist.
• James McGaha offering his absurd "explanations" for incidents like Rendlesham forest and his statement "clearly UFOlogy is a mythology, that's based on supersticion, wrapped inside a fairy-tale, telling a story that simply isn't true" in Jenning's ABC UFO Special
• Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Alien Abductions (unavailable, removed?) video (30min, 120MB AVI), in many ways quite funny (I've listened to it many times). Totally biased with zero informational value, but funny nonetheless. They went to the 4th annual Bay Area UFO Convention, taking "interviews" of poor nutcases and the fringe element in Ufology. This video is so blatant that it might well be part of a paid disinformation campaign; it tries to ridicule and discredit the whole UFO and alien abduction phenomena in the minds of the general audience who doesn't know better. Anyway at least the two comedians don't pretend to be knowledgeable on the subject of UFOs or alien abductions, or un-biased or "scientific".
Contrary to some, I don't believe that most "debunkers" are paid by a US government disinformation campaign, IMO they're mostly "useful idiots". "Debunking" in this translation means the purposeful exhortation of fallacious textures, ideals and beliefs to subvert the general populous.

Purported extraterrestrial / alien UFO-nauts / UFO occupants - entities / greys anatomy details (with photos)

Examples of stories of human-looking UFO aviators: Canada 1970 (notice the "head encased in close-fitting dark material" comment), now look at the Templeton, Solway Firth "spaceman" photo, England 1964, Reverand Gill, Papua New Guinea 1959, Wisconsin, USA 1961, etc.

According to Robert Dean, retired Army master sergeant (extract from OMNI mag Apr-1994 article) a 3yr investigation of UFOs/ETs by NATO between 1961-1964 resulted in a "COSMIC TOP SECRET"-classified Report "Assessment: An Evaluation of a Possible Military Threat to Allied Forces in Europe" stated that

"the planet Earth and human race had been the subject of a detailed survey of some kind by several different extra-terrestrial civilizations, four of which they had identified visually. One race looked almost indistinguishable from us (also referred to as "Nordics", because they resemble northern Europeans, blonde hair, blue eyes etc). Another resembled humans in height, stature, and structure, but with a very gray, pasty skin tone. The third race is now popularly known as the greys (see EBE-Type-II below), and the fourth was described as reptilian, with vertical pupils and lizard-like skin (see EBE-Type-I below)" more

Another hypothesis that could explain human-looking UFOnauts, is of "lost/ancient Earth civilizations", i.e. an earlier human civilization arose, leapt into space to escape the Earthly upheavals of their time (or found some better refuge on Earth itself), and all previous signs of their presence on our planet were afterwards erased and forgotten.

The MAJ12 SOM1-01 document doesn't seem convincing to me (unlike some other MAJ12 documents). On the other hand, Dr.Wood has studied this one extensively and his site rates it with their highest rating of confidence for authenticity.

I started to prepare the current document as a list of Links, as a "UFO Primer" to help members of local group here in Greece find their way in a field which contains a lot of disinformation. But I've only looked into the UFO subject for a few months, since Aug-2006. So, although the data presented here have been checked to the best of my ability, there might still be errors or inaccuracies. I know the "recommended books" section is minimal and needs to be expanded (although my focus was on free material readily available over the Internet, just a click away). I'd welcome any corrections or suggestions you have to offer. This is still work in progress.

Personally, although I've never seen one myself (but know of 2 people who each saw a UFO in very close range of a few meters), I am convinced that UFOs are just as real and tangible as e.g. the B2 stealth bomber (although neither one's pieces are available for study). Thousands of people have seen UFOs, many under circumstances which virtually preclude misinterpretation and some of these sightings have been coordinated with radar fixes. Photographs have been taken and physical evidence has been accumulated.

Don't fall for the propaganda, portraying UFO facts as "conspiracy theories".

Sometimes naive people ask "If this UFO subject were for real, wouldn't you expect all the scientists to jump all over it?", meaning the public scientific research by ACADEMIC scientists. The answer is a loud NO; there already are thousands of scientists WORKING UNDER SECURITY to do it (e.g. just in the 3 nuclear weapon labs in USA there are over 25,000 employees of which 10,000 are scientists, with budgets higher than the entire NSF and some of them undoubtedly work on UFOs).

Anyway IMHO academics have failed the public (with notable exceptions such as James MacDonald, Hynek, Sturrock), in that preciously few had the courage to publicly advocate the study of UFOs, fearing it'll jeopardize their funding and careers. For most people, it's "your soul or your job" and we've all witnessed what most academics answer to that. But it's hardly surprising, if one studies the history and sociology of science.

Even if the best evidence (UFO wreckage and bodies) have been secreted away by the governments as many believe, Science is more than examination of an artifact that one can touch and performing reproducible controllable experiments. The evaluation of sudden unexpected events cannot exclude science even if they can't be rerun again, e.g. the Columbia accident. There are over 3000 physical trace cases in 70 countries, of UFOs landing and affecting soil and flora. The observations of color and changes in color with velocity, the analysis of photographs, triangulation of multiple observations from different directions (see Martin Jasek's excellent work on huge UFOs), frame by frame analysis of motion picture footage, review of EM signals, evaluation of stealth characteristics, evaluation of effects on vehicles and aircraft instrumentation. All this and a host more provide plenty of opportunity for the use of chemistry and physics.

As a closing remark, to paraphrase the Introduction to the Condon Report: "Anyone who honestly studies the UFO phenomenon as a healthy agnostic will, I believe, come out with a new perspective on human values and limitations." Or read Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The emperor's new clothes".

I hope this document will be useful to you.

Dimitris Hatzopoulos
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