UFO's: It's Time For a Scientific Approach (1981)

UFO's: It's Time For a Scientific Approach

by J. Allen Hynek
 

The selective appearance of the UFO suggests deliberate staging, but on whose part? By whatever intelligence lies behind the UFO phenomenon or by an unconscious effort of the witness? For example, it is frequently stated that a UFO landed "on the road, directly ahead of our car." Why not far off to the side? Why directly in plain view, but then only to a handful of people?

Beyond these reported properties must be added even more bizarre "paranormal" characteristics. In addition to "materialization," "dematerialization," and change of form, implausible accelerations, speeds, and "instantaneous" changes in position without any apparent travel time have also been frequently reported. Although seemingly incredible, these paranormal aspects are too well documented to be disregarded.

We are apparently faced with a dualism similar to the wave-particle dualism of light that physicists had to confront a century ago. On the one hand, the UFO exhibits a physical nature: It can be seen and photographed, registers on radar, and can interact with the environment. On the other hand, it behaves as though it were obeying laws yet unknown to physics. We have a situation that is both shocking and paradoxical -one cannot discard one aspect in favor of the other just because it doesn't fit.

For pioneering the first alternatives to the extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, Jacques Vallée has earned a reputation as the grandfather of the "new" ufology, and he's inspired a generation of ufologists to explore a whole new set of questions about the UFO phenomenon.

I don't really like the Control Hypothesis, but the historical record and oddity of UFO encounters stands on its own IMO...