A Brief, Evolving, but Ever-Present UFO History (mostly in the U.S.)

A Brief, Evolving, but Ever-Present UFO History (mostly in the U.S.)

By
Giorgio Piacenza

The Beginning

Collections officer to UFO reports Lt. Col. George Garrett of the Office of Intelligence requirements at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (at that moment called Army Air Force’s Technical Base) saw 18 witness reports and in August 1947 wrote an “estimate” which may have been the first official USAF study of the “Flying Discs” phenomenon. Due to the apparent lack of interest about his estimate Lt. Col. Garret suspected that some top brass in the Pentagon knew about the real meaning of the anomalous events http://mysteriousuniverse.org/…/ufos-and-secret-experiments/

If the Roswell Incident had indeed taken place with the capture and-or recovery of an extraterrestrial flying disc (or “flying saucer” as popularly known after a reporter changed the explanations given by Kenneth Arnold in June 24, 1947, about his sighting of 9 crescent-shaped objects skipping up and down at a great rate of speed over the Cascade Mountain Range), not everyone in the Army and Air Force knew about it. Major concealment would have been instituted on a culturally and psychologically (but not insurmountable) challenging subject with witnesses either threatened or sworn to secrecy. Mounting compartmentalization ensued.

The alleged (and almost proven by now) saucer crash reported on July 08, 1947 in the Roswell Daily Record had probably taken place days earlier (around July 03,) and strange metallic debris was found by ranch employee William ‘Mac’ Brazel some 30 miles north of Roswell, NM, not far from Roswell Army Air Field. Those in the know were probably sworn to secrecy as the event (bringing certainty about the extraterrestrial nature of at least many of the unusual sightings over military bases, including a 1947 “UFO Wave” over different areas of the U.S. and other parts of the world) surpassed the Second World Way European “foo fighter” and Scandinavian “ghost rockets” sightings stage) been classified in the most rigid manner under a strict “need to know basis.”

The Cold War was starting, the prestige of the Army was enormous after the great victory of the Second World War so that, even if Roswell Army Air Field recanted from their official extraterrestrial saucer story released by public information officer Lt. Walter Haut one day after it appeared on the news, most everyone accepted the latter explanation. It didn’t matter that Major Jesse Marcel, the highly trained intelligence officer of an Army Air Field capable of delivering atomic weapons had first thought the debris belonged to a non-terrestrial flying saucer; he was ordered to pose for a photograph with fragments of a weather balloon. He was told to lie to the public and wasn’t happy about it as much later on he admitted.

At the time, people were perhaps more open to the possibility of flying saucers but also easily swayed and gullible in one way or another. It didn’t matter that Col. Blanchard (commanding officer of the 509 Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field) had ordered Lt. Water Haut to release the news. When the Commander of the Eighth Air Force Brig. General Ramey found out of how the event was being handled he may have been ordered by a superior to suppress the leak and misinform the public thus setting up a conventional alternative explanation from which it became ever more difficult to come out with the facts in the open and tell regular citizens in conventional political society that they had been lied to for their own good. Moreover, they didn’t want to give away secrets to potential enemies.

In fact, it seems that - at least since 1941 - due to another alleged UFO crash in Cape Girardeau, MO and then since 1942 due to the so-called “Los Angeles Raid” in which an unknown, disc-shaped object hovered unscathed for several minutes (absorbing a large amount of ammunition fired by anti-aircraft batteries) and after the odd presence of the so-called “foo fighters” in Europe (and possibly after some evidence for antigravity research had been recovered from defeated Nazi Germany), there were enough coordinated “higher ups” capable of dictating the most secret national security policy that placed a lid on the truth. Understandably, gaining technological advantage over potential earth-based and extraterrestrial enemies, buying time to find out if the aliens were hostile and avoiding public panic (especially after the 1938 “War of the Worlds” Orson Welles radio scare) could have been some of the good reasons for such a fear-based, conventional reaction the secrecy that became covertly institutionalized.

But what happened next? Many things did but one of them would be the first formal USAF study of the flying discs, a study which took place at the Army Air Force’s Technical Base (later known as Wright Patterson Air Force Base). In August 1947 collections officer to these anomalous reports Lt. Col. George Garrett in the Office of Intelligence Requirements studied 16 witness reports and wrote an “estimate.”

At that time, USAF intelligence operated under Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg and General Charles Bell. Soon, after reading the “estimate” Lt. General Nathan Twining of the Air Material Command (located in the same base) expressed the conclusions of this work in an improved summary sent as an internal memo or letter to Brig. General Schulgen and, among other things, it stated that the phenomenon refers to objects which are “real and not visionary,” “approximating the shape of a disc” and which – due to their maneuvers – are likely to be intelligently controlled. A link for this is: http://www.project1947.com/fig/twinng47.htm

In other words, at least in some high levels of the command structure (which probably were not informed about the Roswell crash event and about previous determinations of an extraterrestrial presence), there were some genuine or honest-to-God, reasonable assessments of the situation. These (and a need to respond to the public’s demand for official answers) originated PROJECT SIGN which was also formalized basically in January of 1948 in Wright Patterson Air Force Base as part of the Intelligence Division.

Unlike succeeding pseudo-scientific attitudes, PROJECT SIGN researchers did not consider out of hand the mere possibility of an extraterrestrial visitation “preposterous” or dismissible. Among several interesting cases studied, in August 1948, two respectable Eastern Airlines pilots reported that their DC-3 had collided with a strange torpedo-shaped object and this impressed Project SIGN researchers.

Col Howard Mc Coy said that Project Sign investigated over 300 cases involving many military pilot sightings as well as other sightings and a report was prepared by September 1948. The report (most likely called) “The Estimate of the Situation” concluded that (at least some) of the phenomena described could best be explained under what could be called the “Interplanetary Hypothesis” (the term “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis” or “ETH” appeared after this). These objects were real, not Russian and, quite likely, ET.

Further Denial

If within some instances there was extreme secret alien research and retro-engineering about what happened near Roswell and other “crashes,” perhaps other less secretive levels in contact with the general public in the military were considered to have been too open or exposed. Therefore the situation changed.
General Vandenberg (and-or perhaps other individuals controlling the “deep end” of “flying disc/extraterrestrial” research (such as the Majestic 12 /MAGIC committee allegedly instituted through Presidential Executive Order by President Truman in 1947)) didn’t like Project Sign’s honest conclusions that would be known to the public and, thus, rejected Project Sign’s assessment. Regarding this, I think that there were no good scientific or objective reasons to reject the conclusions of that assessment, only perhaps politically motivated and tactical ones. This meant that citizens would be also be considered (in terms of the publicly known research) as not having the right to find out about clear details to eventually come to decide on their own what is best for them. However, they kept seeing flying saucers and reporting them.

After the initial stage that ended with Project Sign, Project “GRUDGE” (inaugurated by the end of 1948) had a clear debunking directive. And - by all means - it was seriously flawed from a scientific perspective. Grudge gave excessive weight to the possibility of misinterpretations of conventional objects. It gave excessive weight to moderate mass hysteria, to hoaxes or to publicity-seeking and psychopathological persons. However, an emphasis on psychological explanations would, later on, be found to be statistically wrong especially during the best (more honest) era of the subsequent Project Blue Book directed by Captain Edward Ruppelt. Regarding these “projects” (and especially Project GRUDGE) it was found that many interesting and probably “anomalous” cases had been miscategorized and too clearly explained away without proper research effort.

General Charles P. Cabell (chief of Air Force Intelligence from 1948-1951) didn’t like the sloppy way GRUDGE had been operating and ordered to research with an open mind. For this reason, the USAF terminated GRUDGE in 1951 and created (still at Wright Patterson) Project Blue Book in 1952 (called like this because of the blue binders used). This research would partake of a modicum of objectivity but instead of mentioning the “Interplanetary” or “ET hypothesis” as a viable explanation for some UFOs many of these would simply be labeled “unexplained.” Therefore, in a certain way, the USAF saved face through a better research process conducted for 22 more years in the eyes of the public, assigning funds, personnel, a recognized civilian astronomer (Joseph Allen Hynek from Northwestern University) and a greater official status to this research. Nonetheless, it gave the psychologically tricky impression that eventually all of the “unexplained” cases could eventually found a conventional explanation.

The USAF didn’t tell the public about Blue Book’s ‘Special Reports’ 1-13 (and even Special Report 14 which was later found and studied by researcher Stanton Friedman, Ph.D.). The Air Force didn’t inform much about the internal military reporting of UFOs instituted through the December 1953 JANAP (Joint Army Navy Air Force Publication) 146 which kept some of the best cases hidden and made it a crime to publish UFO reports under the Espionage Act for military personnel in active duty.
People in general thought that most of the action and the best research action took place in Blue Book but even Dr. Joseph Allen Hynek (who originally started as a skeptical astronomer) came to realize that many good cases were not being adequately researched. Furthermore, after several years of involvement, even Dr. Hynek came to consider not only the (by then called “Extraterrestrial Hypothesis”) but (carefully to avoid a backlash) also began to consider a psychic and perhaps an ‘interdimensional’ dimension to many UFO cases.

A Civilian Response

Around those years, retired USAF Major Donald E. Keyhoe made history when he insisted that there was greater interest to study flying saucers within the military than what was being portrayed to the public at large. In 1950, he published the book “The Flying Saucers are Real” and lobbied for greater political disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence. http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/fsar/index.htm Major Keyhoe also became president of an important civilian UFO research organization called NICAP and was a good representative of the original tradition of truthfully including the extraterrestrial hypothesis in the mix and of speaking plainly and sincerely to the citizenry about what was had really been found (as after the news of original flying disc crash, Lt. Col Garret’s assessment and General Nathan Twining’s confidential memo (apparently not mired under an excessive Top Secret classification) recognizing the possibility of an interplanetary/extraterrestrial presence).
By then an alternative to military research was NICAP (The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) was founded in 1956 as we can read in http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread863671/pg1 :

“The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) was formed in 1956, flourished through about 1970, and declined gradually thereafter. There were three distinct eras of NICAP, the differences between which are important for historical understanding. What I call "the real NICAP" was headed by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe starting in 1957, and I became his assistant in 1958. For approximately 12 years, NICAP was a large and very effective UFO organization. This is the NICAP that accomplished a lot against great odds, as I will explain. When the negative University of Colorado (Condon Committee) report was released in 1968, NICAP began a downhill slide and gradually faded away after the Air Force closed down Project Blue Book in 1969. Its assets finally were purchased by the Center for UFO Studies.”

However, some researchers have questioned NICAP’s absolute research independence since it also had former CIA and government-related individuals in its board and reports were sent to the FBI. About this:

http://vault.fbi.gov/National%20Investigations%20Committee%…
In1964 NICAP published “The UFO Evidence” and a history of NICAP can also be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb1fv2xXLkQ#t=1569

From NICAP’s page titled “Intelligence Summary Project Blue Book Special report No 14” found in http://www.nicap.org/reports/sr14_ufois.htm we read: In late December 1951, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt met with a group based in Columbus, Ohio. Ruppelt wanted their experts to assist them in making the Air Force UFO study more scientific, starting with a standardized reporting form.

Beginning in late March 1952, the Institute started analyzing existing sighting reports and encoding about 30 report characteristics onto IBM punched cards for computer analysis. The classified version was completed in late 1953; a declassified version was published for government use only (my emphasis) in 1955 by the Air Technical Intelligence Center.

Documents in the Blue Book file make it clear that the contractor was the Battelle Memorial Institute, probably because of its proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base ("home" of the Air Technical Intelligence Center, the parent organization of Project Blue Book) and because of its uniquely large (at that time) computing facility. The project carefully analyzed 3,201 sightings that occurred between June 1947 and December 1952. Of these, 21.5% were listed as "unknown." The sightings were ranked according to the credibility of the observer and quality of the information supplied. Four classifications were used: Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor. (*) Of the 213 Excellent sightings, 33% were "unknown" whereas for the 435 Poor sightings only 17% were "unknown." (TAB C -2). The final report started out as 300 pages and was later sanitized down to about a hundred pages. For more details see synopsis and analyses by researchers below.

To me, this shows that a higher percentage of citizens sufficiently impressed by a unique sighting to take the trouble to personally report it to a Government institution has witnessed something truly anomalous. The percentage may be higher than that of citizens in general who did not bother making an official report after seeing something unusual. And we must also keep in mind that finding conventional explanations may not necessarily reflect the phenomenon witnessed. Moreover, if one is expected to find as many conventional explanations as possible to obey an implicit or explicit expectation from superiors will also skew objective assessments.

If we become strict demanding that a witness presents a combination of credibility factors and strong forms of evidence the percentage of “unknowns” may go down to less than 5% but this doesn’t mean that less than 5% of the cases are genuine UFOs. It shows that there only are very few cases that can stand up to higher standards of evidence or that they have enough evidence for a strict scientific demonstration.

The 1950s was an era of reconstruction, hope, and progress. THE 1950’S also seems to have been a time of OPPORTUNITY TO ESTABLISH OPEN CONTACT or to maintain and strengthen the secrecy. If we seriously consider the testimonies of contactees with human-looking, extraterrestrials beings, at least some of these intelligences behind intelligently-guided UFOs also seem to have wanted to end the secrecy. But maybe they expected more people to resonate with the sincerity and call for the truth of key contactees.

Extreme secrecy, at least a crashed UFO with strange looking humanoid aliens, UFO waves over the nation and a “nuts and bolts” research somewhat affected American culture along with claims of friendlier, physically real (and occasionally photographed) but highly ethical, telepathic and spiritual contacts with human-looking extraterrestrials.

At least some individuals “in the know” within government institutions dealing with these subjects also probably knew that elements of information in all of these aspects were valid and since the cover-up had not yet been sociologically supported in a conclusive manner by academicians, society (at least in the U.S.) still had an opportunity to experience disclosure. But ufology as a contactee movement and ufology as a nuts& bolts research also separated early on and the latter (often considered a more legitimate scientific approach associated with institutional credibility) dismissed the religious-sounding contactees.

In 1952 there was an important UFO wave (especially in the summer of that year) in which jet fighters were scrambled and UFOs were detected on many occasions over Air Force bases and airports on radar. There also were radar-visual sightings that gave legitimacy to the “unknowns” as a real physical phenomenon rather than as a misidentified and-or purely social & psychological phenomenon related to hysteria.

The UFO wave continued onto 1953 and to many, it seemed that the “Martians,” the “flying saucer people” or “extraterrestrials” in general wanted to be openly recognized. But one of the responses appears to have been to “shoot them down” as Frank Feschino, Jr. showed in his book “Shoot Them Down: The Flying Saucer Air Wars of 1952.”

Soon after the UFO wave of 1952-53, academic panels legitimized the rationale behind the cover-up and many scientists (for instance organized around NICAP) emphasized a “nuts & bolts” approach de-emphasizing the psychic, spiritual and contactee aspects. If instead of trying to occasionally submit some contactees to lie detection tests they had tried to verify alleged contacts with extraterrestrials by going with them to witness and film UFO contact experiences, history could have been different. Perhaps we would have been able to determine who were our friends and who were our foes, people would have not gone crazy and societies around the world would have faced the challenge to their fundamental beliefs and evolved more intelligently.

Interestingly, a UFO wave took place in France in 1954 and my feeling is that the extraterrestrial intelligences related to the 1952 U.S. wave moved their activity to France as they likely wanted to stimulate the possibility of an open contact through that country’s response since in the U.S. the power structure in control of the cover-up had reacted with the help of academic assessments geared to legitimize the continuity of the cover-up.

A UFO fleet was witnessed in 1952 by numerous persons flying over Washington, DC and (as stated), generally speaking, during those years there seems to have been a policy of intercepting and shooting at them if at all possible. The case comes of Captain Milton Torres come to mind who (even later on in 1957) was told to shoot at a UFO while stationed over England before being told to remain silent about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEI7rwx6L2c ).

The recognized contactees of the 1950s (unlike the Roswell incident(s) aliens) claimed that ETs were human-looking, compassionate, communicative and benevolent. Furthermore, during those years there might or might not have been meetings and semi-official agreements between human-looking and less human-looking (“humanoid”) varieties of ET and a de facto or (if theU.S. Constitution allows it) a de jure meeting with government representatives.

Timothy Good’s research, Michael E. Salla’s research, and Richard Dolan’s research are some of the sources that lead me to consider this possibility. Furthermore, there may or may have not been some alleged meetings between President Eisenhower and representatives of one or more civilizations offering different options to the governmenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxLKFRJUGxg .

Perhaps there was an attempt by President Eisenhower himself to know about secrets that had been kept from him in sections of what we now know as Area 51 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FyONXh22M .

The truthfulness of any of this requires much further corroboration.

Apparently, open contacts with human-looking extraterrestrials (perhaps varieties of non-homo sapiens, extraterrestrial humans), many of them more respectful of our conscious will to evolve, extraterrestrials emphasizing education for spiritual growth instead of technology were rejected and-or postponed while technological research of downed craft perhaps originating in less respectful ET civilizations was pursued. Or, perhaps, a variety of benevolent, neutral and some malevolent extraterrestrial civilizations and associations willing to establish contact were sought after with a technological emphasis in mind.

In 1953 and soon after the main 1952 “UFO wave” (by the way the acronym “UFO” which means “unidentified flying object” was coined in 1951 by Captain Edward Ruppelt) the CIA sponsored the Robertson Panel (led by the mathematician Howard P. Robertson) which issued a classified report within the CIA called “The Durant Report” (because it was written by F.C. Durant). This report seems to have set out at least part of the official public policy regarding UFOs considering them not a national menace in themselves but as a security threat due to the public hysteria they could originate, with the result of clogging emergency response channels.

In other words, for their own good “The People” were not to be trusted with specific information nor objectively informed. This was in part because during the 1952 UFO wave (the then switchboard based) telephone lines had been clogged by citizen’s reporting sightings wanting to know what was going on. And with an intense Cold War raging there was a fear of clogging emergency phone lines with UFO calls when something else more mundane but surely threatening could also transpire. However, the Robertson Panel went as far as recommending debunking UFOs by educating the public to predispose it against the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis. In fact, it recommended managing public opinion.

However, unique encounters that defied credible attempts to conventionally explain away the extraterrestrial hypothesis continued as with the 1957 “RB-47” case involving a highly experienced and trained crew flying a top-secret airplane filled with advanced electronic detectors. The airplane was followed for several hours by a UFO which was detected visually but also by onboard and ground-based radars. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttebNxI0v_8

The 1960s

Then in 1960 the “Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs”, a study commissioned by NASA (and also simply known as “The Brookings Report”) suggested that it might be wise to withhold the eventual discovery of an extraterrestrial presence from society in order to avoid a major crisis. This may have reinforced the already established policy not to disclose what already seems to have been known.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookings_Report

Unlike promoting the assessment that “societies sure of their place in the universe could disintegrate,” I would emphasize that –unless cultural and religious leaders are eliminated and unless people are isolated and treated as inferior– societies are very resilient and can adapt to new circumstances, expanding their knowledge to meet the new circumstances. In other words, I think that ET contact can be positive and lead to growth and greater freedom and self-determination while assisting us to outgrow outpaced assumptions.

After a mistake by Dr. J.Allen Hynek stating (among other possibilities) that the widely publicized 1966 UFO events seen by many witnesses for several days in Michigan could perhaps be explained by “Swamp Gas,” Michigan congressman (and future President) Gerald Ford and the House Armed Services Committee called for the first congressional hearings on UFOs. The hearings were held but, interestingly, Major Hector Quintanilla, who succeeded Captain Edward Ruppelt as acting director of Project Blue Blue Book stated "Congressman Gerald Ford got on the UFO bandwagon. It just so happens that Dexter was in Congressman Ford’s district. It was pure politics and he made the national news by demanding that either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee scheduled hearings on the subject of UFOs....Congressman Ford did get his wish, a congressional hearing was imminent. Someone should ask Congressman Ford what it cost the American taxpayer to hold that hearing and ask him if he would like to reimburse for the expense; because that hearing was totally unnecessary."

http://www.presidentialufo.com/old_site/gerald_ford_ufos.htm
That negative attitude coincided with decay in Project Blue Book’s research standards as they were trying to dismiss or explain away as many cases as possible. From a 21.5% of “unknown” cases (statistically analyzed by Battelle Memorial Institute during Captain Ruppelt’s term), the number of cases in this category fell to the 6.5%-7% range during Quintanilla’s term. That was the time when civilian scientific advisor J. Allen Hynek also felt most uncomfortable with Blue Book’s research procedures.

Then in 1968, the House Science and Astronautics Committee held the second hearings called "Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects" and it had some good scientists like nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman and atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald. It was better and more serious than the first one but included individuals that had the attitude that the ETH is not true because it simply cannot be true according to what was known in established science.

The results in terms of political action remained inconclusive as good reasons for the recognition of a real but socially controversial phenomenon (a political “hot potato”) were negated by a clash with allegedly skeptical and open-minded (but in truth genuinely closed minded) scientists.http://nicap.org/books/1968Sym/1968_UFO_Symposium.pdf

It was the (now infamous) University of Colorado Scientific Study on Unidentified Flying Objects, also known as “The Condon Report.” The “study” had taken place between 1966 and 1968, but the scientists had scarcely met, and the conclusions had been expected from the very beginning. Also, in 1968 a crucial and allegedly “scientific” report was produced.

The US Air Force had asked several universities to conduct a UFO study and the University of Colorado (apparently at the time in need of funds) accepted the offer under the direction of physicist Edward Condon. It was sponsored with more than 250,000 and there is some evidence that the CIA was involved in the recruiting. At first, the study was enthusiastically received by many UFO researchers, but later it was deemed as an extremely poor example scientific proceeding since the conclusions were apparently preconceived from the beginning and the research committee only met a few times.

Even if the study and conclusions were endorsed by the National Academy of Sciences (providing an air of legitimacy in the eyes of most scientists and academicians) about 30% of 550 cases remained unexplained by conventional means. The flawed conclusion was that nothing of scientific value had come from research into UFOs and nothing of value would likely come from it.

Off course rejecting the ET Hypothesis and limiting a study to making statistics without assessment, research or further analysis would only be of limited value. However, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics declared that "The opposite conclusion could have been drawn from its content, namely that a phenomenon with such a high rate of unexplained cases (about 30%) should arouse sufficient scientific curiosity to continue its study."

How could a phenomenon that produces physical effects and which cannot be conventionally explained not be of scientific interest? Political considerations aligned with conventional materialist biases had decided ahead of time what had to be presented as true. Or, perhaps, Dr. Condon (who had worked in classified projects) had influenced the process.

Furthermore, sociological processes within academic, scientific and government institutions had prevailed over the original research that was essential for an unconventional phenomenon. The report was a scientific travesty of sorts but calmed down much of the scientific community’s cognitive dissonance based on the ideological need to research an empirical phenomenon however strange and challenging of established theory it might be.

Few studied the evidence or the report itself but were relieved and happy to say that a scientific team had demonstrated that there was ‘nothing significant’ about the UFO phenomenon. Scientists Mc Donald, Sturrock, Friedman and Hynek showed that the team gathered around the University of Colorado had not researched the best cases carefully and unbiasedly. But the public and most academicians were satisfied with the “scientific report” and mass media journalists naturally trying to be a source of official credibility (along with society’s other major institutions) did not look further into the case.

The first serious report of an abduction occurring to Betty and Barney Hill took place in1960. In 1964 Socorro, New Mexico police officer Lonnie Zamora allegedly saw an egg-shaped, landed craft with two small beings. Then, in 1969 soon after the Condon Report of 1968, Project Blue Book was closed. In spite of continued UFO events there seems to have been a certain lull or decrease in UFO-related activity until 1973 when there was another important UFO wave in the U.S. and other parts of the world (including the abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker in Pascagoula Mississippi)http://www.nicap.org/waves/1973fullrep.htm

There were also other events in the U.S. that prompted unique field research worth mentioning. Quoting from Wikipedia about “Project Identification” (which functioned from 1973 to 1980):
“In 1973, a wave of UFO sightings in southeast Missouri prompted Harley D. Rutledge, a physics professor at the University of Missouri, to conduct an extensive field investigation of the phenomenon.[76] The findings were published in the book Project Identification: the first scientific field study of UFO phenomena.[77] Although taking a specific interest in describing unidentified aerial phenomena, as opposed to identifying them, the book references the presumed intelligence of the sighted objects.[78] Rutledge's study results were not published in any peer-reviewed journal or other scientific venue or format.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufology

Outside of the U.S., contactees like Eduard “Billy” Meier, Enrique Castillo Rincón and Sixto Paz Wells appeared on the world scene allegedly making contact with more communicative, human-looking extraterrestrials. According to my assessment, all three were genuine contactees, but only the last two were contacted by credible, non-manipulative extraterrestrials. Again in 1975 there was a strange abduction-like event (now more clearly understood as an accident for which an abduction was needed to save the victim’s life): In 1975 logger Travis Walton was accidentally hit in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona by a beam of energy stemming out of a UFO. He was taken for several days by the intelligences inside the UFO reappearing in a state of shock after his logging teammates were deemed suspicious of killing him. All of them passed police tests and were found deemed to be telling the truth.

After Project Blue Book

After the closing of Project Blue Book, the UFO phenomenon evolved with an apparent increase in abductions (typically by skinny grey aliens) and of cattle mutilations (see Linda Moulton Howe’s research) reported especially in the U.S. However; those events might be the tip of the iceberg in a multi-faceted UFO-ET related phenomenon.

The possibility of public research into the UFO phenomenon also evolved with initiatives such as the 1978 United Nation’s General Assembly UN GA 33/426 to establish a central UFO research and information gathering-educational office in the United Nations. That initiative was proposed by Grenada’s Prime Minister Gairy who according to Dr. Michael Salla, had had a personal experience and found a tall, deceased extraterrestrial corpse.

In 1980 there were several landing events of unknown craft near RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters Base located in Rendlesham Forest and several military officers have come out, to tell the truth including highly trained witnesses Lt. Col. Charles Holt and security Sergeant Penniston who approached the devices and added unique detection experiences.

The phenomenon evolved associated to the “crop circles” which became notorious and more complex in various countries, but especially in Wiltshire County, England. It also evolved with the 1989-90 UFO wave of silent, dark (and sometimes with three lights) triangles sighted in Belgium at low flying altitudes even by policemen on numerous occasions. It evolved with the 1991 metallic-looking, rotating UFO filmed by several cameras from different angles over Mexico during a total solar eclipse (after which numerous UFOs have been continuously filmed in that country).

Then came the 1999 COMETA Report associated with France’s GEIPAN of France’s National Center for Space Studies (in which the extraterrestrial hypothesis is considered as the more rational explanation for about 5% of the cases they studied). Then we experienced the evolution of a disclosure movement (or a new more consolidated stage of a disclosure movement) at least since CAUS (Citizen Against UFO Secrecy) founded in 1977 organized marches followed by “The Rockefeller Initiative” (sponsored by Laurance Rockefeller during President Bill Clinton’s Administration), by Dr. Steven Greers “Disclosure Project” and by Stephen Bassett’s “Citizen’s Hearing on Disclosure” in 2013.

In fact, the latter two have provided many credible, high-ranking former government officials and military whistleblowers whose combined patriotic and pro-democratic declarations cannot be denied without incurring in excessive nihilism and disrespect. In the last few years, even former Canadian Minister of Defence Paul Hellyer (perhaps inspired by the previous example of U.K’s former Admiral of the Fleet and former head of NATO, Lord Peter Hill-Norton) has come forward on the reality of the extraterrestrial presence. http://www.youtube.com/user/SDisclosure

Moreover, (as Mr. Jaime Maussan from Mexico showed in the 2014 International UFO Congress and before) UFO events have morphed into a multitude of strange happenings like tubes entering active volcanoes, lights organizing themselves around a central object, and more. Moreover, strange humanoid flying entities are associated with classic and unique UFO sightings and are being filmed with video cameras and cell phones. In fact, the general availability especially of cell phones is also producing an ever-increasing proliferation of UFO videos and related phenomena around the world.

Furthermore, several countries (like Spain, the U.K., New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil) that kept tabs on the UFO phenomenon have released most or part of their UFO files and these can be found online. Besides, several countries like Uruguay, France, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Peru have official UFO or “anomalous aerial phenomena” research offices which (until recently) made the U.S. look like firmly established under a deep case of undemocratic, official denial. Unfortunately, from the viewpoint of our consciousnesses connected within an information matrix, it is conceivable that denial and holding on to limited, simplistic thinking patterns of “us vs. them” may primarily serve to prevent an intelligent interaction with “them.” Or perhaps (if we militarize space with advanced space-time altering weapons) we may attract space-faring intelligences that (in spite of greater scientific & technological prowess) still hold similar problems in their subconscious minds.

The “UFO Phenomenon” has evolved not only by demonstrating more characteristics but by becoming more and more undeniable that those percentages of “unknowns” indicate a real (albeit non-classically expected) extraterrestrial (and likely “inter-reality” or “interdimensional”) presence connected with so-called “paranormal” phenomena and with consciousness. The worldwide, scientific, anonymous research conducted on experiencers and/or contactees by the Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research onExtraterrestrial and Extraordinary Encounters (F.R.E.E.) shows that most described experiences with entities associated to UFOs are not considered “malevolent.” This has to be taken into consideration to assess who is who among these entities. www.experiencer.org

Moreover (since October 2017), declarations by former intelligence agents and scientists that worked in UFO research and in other covert projects for the U.S, Government (individuals who have come together to form To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences and who are beginning to show objective official evidence) not only legitimizes the whole issue but inaugurates a stage of gradual official recognition. https://dpo.tothestarsacademy.com/

Also, recent official declarations (in May 2019) by the U.S. Navy inrelation to the fact that it is changing its UFO witness reporting protocols in a manner that facilitates reporting and research should become a clear indication to academicians and mass media reporters that the UFO phenomenon is to be treated in a serious, credible manner. It should also influence the U.S. Air Force and other countries’ armed forces to follow suit.https://www.politico.com/…/us-navy-guidelines-reporting-ufo…

I only hope that the - understandable - military outlook of those engaging in a more official type of disclosure doesn’t prevent a more comprehensive approach which – in my view – involves the evolution of foundational premises, culture, consciousness, economic systems, and politics while striving to find out (in a friendlier, respectful manner) ‘who is who’ among our “space-faring” visitors and under what rules they operate.

A Word About Exopolitics

Along with all of this, Exopolitics (mostly developed in a more specific manner by Dr. Michael E. Salla and by Dr. Alfred Webre) is necessary as a branch of the political sciences and as an integrative and multidisciplinary approach useful to assess, study and decide policies related to the political and cultural implications of an actual or probable extraterrestrial presence. In other words, while there is sufficient evidence to warrant assuming an actual ET presence here on Earth, it is merely necessary to consider extraterrestrial life as a possibility to think in exopolitical terms. But, before recommending specific policies, it exopolitical inquiry has to be done carefully and responsibly, vetting and contrasting sources of evidence as much as possible.

The potential to stimulate a re-evaluation of our lives and to start to collectively “think outside of the box,” for instance outside of the paradigm of unending linear development and in terms of inevitable conflict among conscious agents (as we come to realize that we are integrally embedded in a larger reference frame) is enormous.

Conclusion

The brief UFO history I recounted is “ever-present” because its potential for igniting in us a positive transformation process has never gone away. The UFO phenomenon called upon us and still calls upon us (but with greater undeniable evidence) to open up to a different, non-classical, ‘integral’ way of thinking combining the spiritual and the scientific from the very beginning before it was clamped down due to traditional fear, traditional thinking and the need to keep technological research secrets.

But the secrecy and willful ignorance of the matter cannot be indefinitely held without incurring in a repression of much a needed cultural evolution and the time has come to learn, to assimilate, to become educated, to integrate information of a spiritual, a conceptual and physical nature in a way that leads to greater growth and freedom instead of fear and insurmountable disruption. We can do it with integrity, honesty, openness, and a willingness to transcend compartmentalized and divisive thinking. We must also do it in a way that does not share technological capacities that in the wrong hands will imperil civilization and the ecology as we know it.

That is a kind of challenge and thinking called “integral” or “integrative” by philosophers like Ken Wilber. It is also called “complex thought” or “connective thinking” by a philosopher like Edgar Morin. We must learn from them (and from other similar thinkers) even if they have not dealt with ufology, the paranormal, exopolitics, disclosure or the extraterrestrial presence.

It is a time for being willing to learn on our own if need be and also for increasing civilian contact, especially with those beings who – according to sustained contact experiences providing more than anecdotal evidence - hold our best interests in their hearts. We need to humble our attitudes about being able to manage the extraterrestrial presence with our old thinking patterns.

It is honest people asking for the truth and able to handle the truth that represents humanity’s best interests and, just as in 1947 Col. Blanchard, Maj. Jesse Marcel and Lt. Walter Haut from Roswell Army Air Field and then Lt. Col Garrett and General Nathan Twining were able to simply share their thinking in all honesty regarding an extraterrestrial presence, that presence today as before throughout the sixty-something years since “The Roswell Incident” has found many other ways of being recognized. Also, the scope and vastness of the evidence for an extraterrestrial presence have now accumulated to the point in which further denial may soon become self-defeating, regressive and futile.

We must grow up as a species and try to see what the presence of other advanced beings entails, appreciating all of its angles or aspects without limiting our assessments to a traditional national security standpoint. In such a way we might come to terms in a healthier way with the vaster reality that waits for us (and which has probably always been close to us) while already knocking on our doors.