ARE WE ALONE?

The ‘science’ of ufology is often derided, but it has millions of devotees. From simple sightings to radar contacts and even alien abductions, the body of ‘evidence’ for extra-terrestrial visitation grows daily.

But is there any real proof?

 

In 24 June 1947, Kenneth Arnold was flying over the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. A part-time deputy sheriff and accomplished pilot, he was looking for a crashed military transport plane - the government had offered $5000 for it’s discovery. He found more than he bargained for.

Arnold saw nine disc-shaped objects hurtling along at what he estimated was 1,700mph. They moved like "a saucer skipping over water", he told reporters. "A flying saucer?" asked one. The name caught on. "Saucer" implied some kind of artefact or machine, not a natural atmospheric phenomenon. The UFO age had begun.

The Cold War was beginning, and a jittery US was more militarised than it ever had been in peacetime. People began to scan the skies. By 14 July, the air force had received over 850 UFO reports. Witnesses included military pilots and rocket scientists as well as hillbilly farmers. It had to be creatures from outer space. The extra-terrestrial hypothesis (ETH) has dominated UFO thinking ever since.

The air force assigned a team to record sighting details and provide explanations. Sometimes it was easy: the planet Venus is the most widely reported UFO. But some weren’t explained.

In July 1952, UFOs appeared over Washington DC, with blips on radar screens to match the strange lights that shot across the capital. The air force scrambled fighters to no avail; they never explained that one.

Photographs appeared. Some were hoaxes - hoaxing would be a long term aspect of the UFO phenomenon - while others were explained as birds or aircraft. Soon people were saying they hadn’t just seen UFOs, they’d talked to their crews. By the late 1950s there were tales of aliens of various shapes, sizes and hues as well as propensities for good and evil. In 1957, a Brazilian farmer claimed the closet encounter of all: He’d met a nude female alien "more beautiful than any I have ever seen before"…

In 1969 the US-government-commissioned Condon Report dismissed the phenomenon - but the UFOs kept coming.

The 1970s brought a new aspect to UFOs: conspiracy. The US had used alien technology to built bases on Mars and the moon back in the 1950s: when Kennedy decided to spill the beans, he was assassinated. Supposed conspiracies included the UN, the Freemasons and international Jewry.

The 1980s brought "New Age" UFOs: Spiritual representations of the human psyche, inner reality or karmic destiny of technological society. Abduction is going from strength to strength. Some claim that four million Americans have been snatched by UFOs - more than can do long division.