UFO'S AND ALIENS
Although mankind has always seen strange objects in the sky, the modern wave of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) began in 1947 with reports of "flying discs." One of these crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in that year, but was later shown to have been a secret research balloon. Investigation frequently converts UFOs to IFOs when the unidentified objects are identified as meteors, balloons, secret aircraft, and other phenomena.
With UFO sightings have increasingly come reports of extraterrestrial contact. Investigation, however, demonstrates that many "abductees" are people having common "waking dreams" or fantasy experiences (often under hypnosis). (See Susan Blackmore, "Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?" Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 1998, pp.23-28.)
As shown by the Alien Time Line (see illustration), the alleged entities are as diverse as the human imagination could be expected to produce. But beginning in 1961 with the Betty and Barney Hill case, and continuing with other highly publicized "abductions," the humanoid model has prevailed. Today the small-bodied type with large head and intense eyes has become the most common, "official" extraterrestrial.
|