Ufology, sometimes written UFOlogy ( or ),
Etymology
Ufology is a
neologism derived from
UFO (a term apparently coined by Edward J. Ruppelt),
and is derived from appending the acronym UFO with the suffix
-logy (from the
Ancient Greek -λογία (
-logia)). Early uses of ufology include an article in
Fantastic Universe (1957)
[Sanderson, Ivan T. "An Introduction to Ufology." Fantastic Universe. Feb. 1957: 27–34. Print.] and a 1958 presentation for the UFO "research organization" The Planetary Center.
Historical background
The roots of ufology include the "
mystery airships" of the late 1890s, the "
" reported by Allied airmen during World War II, the "ghost fliers" of
Europe and
North America during the 1930s, the "
ghost rockets" of
Scandinavia (mainly Sweden) in 1946, and the Kenneth Arnold "flying saucer" sighting of 1947.
Media attention to the Arnold sighting helped publicize the concept of
.
[Denzler (2003), p. 9]
Publicity of UFOs increased after World War II, coinciding with the escalation of the Cold War and strategic concerns related to the development and detection (e.g., the Ground Observer Corps) of advanced Soviet Union aircraft.[ Italian Air Force UFO site (in Italian)] and Sweden[GEIPAN stands for Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés ("unidentified aerospace phenomenon research and information group").] program, formerly known as GEPAN (1977–1988) and SEPRA (1988–2004), operated by the French Space Agency CNES.
On 14 September 2023, NASA reported the appointment, for the first time, of a Director of U.A.P. (known earlier as U.F.O.), identified as Mark McInerney, to scientifically and transparently study such occurrences.
As a field
Status as a pseudoscience
Despite investigations sponsored by governments and private entities, ufology is not embraced by academia as a scientific field of study, and is instead generally considered a
pseudoscience by skeptics and science educators,
being often included on lists of topics characterized as pseudoscience as either a partial
or total
pseudoscience.
is a term that classifies arguments that are claimed to exemplify the methods and principles of science, but do not adhere to an appropriate scientific method, lack supporting evidence, plausibility,
falsifiability, or otherwise lack scientific status.
Some writers have identified social factors that contribute to the status of ufology as a pseudoscience,[Feist (2006), pp. 219–20]
Current interest
In 2021, astronomer
Avi Loeb launched The Galileo Project
which intends to collect and report scientific evidence of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial technology on or near Earth via telescopic observations.
In Germany, the University of Würzburg is developing intelligent sensors that can help detect and analyze aerial objects in hopes of applying such technology to UAP.
A 2021 Gallup poll found that belief among Americans in some UFOs being extraterrestrial spacecraft grew between 2019 and 2021 from 33% to 41%. Gallup cited increased coverage in mainstream news and scrutiny from government authorities as a factor in changing attitudes towards UFOs.
In 2022, NASA announced a nine-month study starting in the fall to help establish a road map for investigating UAP—or for reconnaissance of the publicly available data it might use for such research.
In 2023, the RAND Corporation published a study reviewing 101,151 public reports of UAP sightings in the United States from 1998 to 2022.
Methodological issues
Although some ufologists (e.g., Peter A. Sturrock) have proposed explicit methodological activities for the investigation of UFOs,
[Sturrock (2000) p. 163] scientific UFO research is challenged by the facts that the phenomena are spatially and temporally unpredictable, are not reproducible, and lack tangible physicality.
[Denzler (2003), p. 35] That most UFO sightings have mundane explanations
[Markovsky B., "UFOs", in The Skeptic's Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, edited by Michael Shermer, 2002 Skeptics Society, p. 260] limits interpretive power of "interesting," extraordinary UFO-related events, with the astronomer
Carl Sagan writing: "The reliable cases are uninteresting and the interesting cases are unreliable. Unfortunately there are no cases that are both reliable and interesting."
The ufologists J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée have each developed descriptive systems for characterizing UFO sightings and, by extension, for organizing ufology investigations.
Phenomena linked to ufology
In addition to UFO sightings, certain supposedly related phenomena are of interest to some ufologists, including
,
cattle mutilations,
anomalous materials,
and
Alien implant.
[Denzler (2003), p. 239]
Some ufologists have also promoted UFO conspiracy theories, including the Roswell Incident of 1947,
Skeptic Robert Sheaffer has accused ufology of having a "credulity explosion,"[Sheaffer, Robert. "A Skeptical Perspective on UFO Abductions". In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press. pp. 382–388.] writing that "the kind of stories generating excitement and attention in any given year would have been rejected by mainstream ufologists a few years earlier for being too outlandish."[McDonald (1968)]
In Posadism
During the
Cold War, ufology was synthesized with the ideas of a
Trotskyism movement in South America known as
Posadism. Posadism's main theorist, Juan Posadas, believed the human race must "appeal to the beings on other planets...to intervene and collaborate with Earth's inhabitants in suppressing poverty;" i.e., Posadas wished to collaborate with extraterrestrials to create a
socialism on Earth.
The adoption of this belief among Posadists, who had previously been a significant political force in South America, has been noted as a contributing factor in their decline.
[Steven, John Sandor (2006). Permanent Revolution on the Altiplano: Bolivian Trotskyism. Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest Information and Learning Company, p. 314.]
Governmental and private ufology studies
Starting in the 1940s, governmental agencies and private groups sponsored investigations, studies, and conferences related to ufology. Typically motivated by visual UFO sightings, the goals of these studies included critical evaluation of the observational evidence, attempts to resolve and identify the observed events, and the development of policy recommendations. These studies include
Project Sign, Project Magnet, Project Blue Book, the
Robertson Panel, and the
Condon Committee in the United States, the Flying Saucer Working Party and
Project Condign in Britain,
GEIPAN in France, and
Hessdalen light in Norway. Private studies of UFO phenomena include those produced by the
RAND Corporation in 1968,
Harvey Rutledge of the University of Missouri from 1973 to 1980,
and the National Press Club's Disclosure Project in 2001.
Additionally, the
United Nations from 1977 to 1979 sponsored meetings and hearings concerning UFO sightings.
[ A/DEC/32/424 UNBISnet- United Nations Bibliographic Information System, Dag Hammarskjöld Library (Retrieved May 4, 2010)][ A/DEC/33/426 , UNBISnet (Retrieved May 4, 2010)] In August 2020, the United States Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to detect, analyze and catalog unidentified aerial phenomena that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.
UFO organizations and events
A large number of private organizations dedicated to the study, discussion, and publicity of ufology and other UFO-related topics exist worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland. Along with such "pro-UFO" groups are skeptic organizations that emphasize the pseudoscientific nature of ufology.
During the annual World UFO Day (2 July), ufologists and associated organizations raise public awareness of ufology to "tell the truth about earthly visits from outer space aliens."
See also
-
Identification studies of UFOs
-
Extraterrestrial hypothesis
-
Psychosocial hypothesis
-
Interdimensional hypothesis
-
Time-traveler hypothesis
-
Cryptoterrestrial UFO hypothesis
-
Fringe science
-
List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
-
List of reported UFO sightings
-
List of Ufologists
-
Close encounter
-
The Phenomenon (2020 film)
-
UFOs in fiction
-
UFO religion
Further reading
- Academic books about ufology as a sociological and historical phenomenon
- Pro-ufology
- Skeptical opinions
- Ufology studies
External links
