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By Mark Cashman, mcashman@ix.netcom.com,
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If the only strange things seen in the sky were a few oddly moving lights, or some specks glinting in a sunlit sky, there would be no UFO problem. Unfortunately for those who would prefer to dismiss the subject, there have been many close observations of these strange objects (one of these, observation of a 80-90 foot object at a distance of less than 300 feet by two police officers and a young man about to enter the Navy, is illustrated above). In addition, physical traces of various kinds have been left behind, and witnesses have experienced physical and medical effects, including injury and death.
Of all of the reported sightings, between 5 and 25% (depending on the sample) remain unidentifiable to expert examination. These are the real UFOs.
If you think that reports of UFOs remain unidentified because there is insufficient information to perform an identification, you will find it hard to explain how the Batelle Institute, under contract to the Air Force, in an analysis of nearly 4,000 reports (Blue Book Special Report 14), found that a "good" (i.e. detailed) report was twice as likely as a "poor" (sketchy) report to be classed as unidentified. You will also find it hard to explain why they also found that the "knowns" share almost nothing in common with the "unknowns".
If, on the other hand, you think that reports of UFOs remain unidentified because the witnesses are perpetrating hoaxes, you should know that no major study has ever found more than a few percent of initial UFO reports to be hoaxes.
If you think that only unreliable individuals, captured by airy New Age spiritualism, are reporters of UFOs, then you are unaware of the tens of thousands of reports generated by responsible police officers, pilots, military personnel, and ordinary people who were going about their normal business when they were confronted with something they had never imagined or desired, and which, in a matter of minutes, left them confused, amazed, or terrified.
In general, humans are good witnesses. They may not be able to identify what they see, but they usually provide sufficient information for experts to do so. More importantly, there is very little room for misinterpretation when an object approaches within a hundred yards of a witness, illuminating the scene and occluding more distant objects. When the same event is observed by multiple independent witnesses, the case is even stronger. And when traces such as burns, swirled grass, and indentations are left behind, it is possible to derive directly measured parameters such as weight and energy output.
Such measurements indicate that the landed UFO is an object between 15 and 100 feet in diameter, most commonly under 30 feet; it weighs between 30 and 60 tons; it emits visible light energy when airborne ranging from a few kW to hundreds of mW. It emits invisible electromagnetic energy at the high frequency end of the spectrum, including UV and soft x-rays, as shown by the many cases of skinburn and eye irritation. It occasionally emits harder radiations, which have led to symptoms of radiation sickness in witnesses who have closely approached the objects. However, lasting radioactivity, which would indicate the presence of radiations in or beyond the gamma band, have rarely been found at landing sites.
In flight, the UFO has no aerodynamic characteristics. It has no wings or visible propulsion systems, and, with few exceptions, makes no more than a soft humming or whining sound. In darkness, it is frequenly observed to emit a colored luminosity which is both global and localized. It usually emits that luminosity in a shape which depends on its current maneuver. Though sometimes described as "flames", close observations have shown that this luminosity does not have a high temperature, and it probably represents an ionization of the local atmosphere similar to what occurs in a neon light.
Most UFOs are symmetrical objects with spherical, lenticular, elliptical, or cylindrical shapes. Some UFOs have a equatorial ring and are referred to as having a "saturn" shape. There are also flat bottomed disks and disks with domes. Some UFOs are very small (inches to feet) and some are very large (hundreds of feet). All of these forms have common flight characteristics.
All UFOs are capable of incredible speeds. Reliable radar observations (in some cases with multiple sets at multiple frequencies) have documented speeds in the 10,000 mph range within the atmosphere, as long ago as the 1950s. But high speeds alone do not distinguish the UFO. Profiles of speed and altitude based on radar measurements and backed up by visual observations indicate that UFOs can undergo radical changes in both speed and altitude simultaneously. Other observations indicate a disregard for normal orientations, where the UFO is observed to hover on edge, flip upside down, or spin while hovering. A particularly characteristic maneuver is the "falling leaf", where the object swings like a pendulum from side to side while descending. This maneuver to lose altitude was first used in human flight by Paul Hill, the NASA engineer who invented the flying platform.
UFOs appear to be able to interfere with electrical systems, and seem especially interested in interfering with and disabling automobiles. The Levelland case is a classic among these cases; several cars across a wide area were stopped during close approach to a luminous UFO landed on the road in front of them - these encounters were witnessed within a short span of time by multiple independent witnesses. Television and radio interference have also been reported.
Extremely close observations of UFOs also yield reports of odors near UFOs. These odors are often reported as "ozone" or "formaldehyde", and in most cases are highly irritating.
UFOs do have solid surfaces, as has been shown by reports where witnesses have struck the objects with hands, rocks, or bullets. Interestingly, one case directly demonstrated the presence of a force field of some sort, when the witness noted that a thrown rock was deflected to the ground at a distance of about fifteen feet from a hovering UFO.
UFOs do land, and when they do so, they sometimes simply hover at a very low altitude, producing swirled grass, subsoil burning of plant root systems, and unusual effects on the exposed plants (usually changes in the chlorophyll). In other cases, they extend landing gear of some sort, usually legs with footpads. It is these landing gear which have left marks amenable to pressure analysis, and from which we have been able to derive the possible weight of the UFO.
Thus - the UFO: A solid object with weight, emitting energy, sound, and odor. In some cases interfering with automobile engines and electrical systems, in other cases affecting humans and animals with radiation and / or sonic emissions.
In the face of the common pattern of UFO appearance and behavior, it is a travesty of science to ignore the observations and simply cast aspersions on the motivation or capability of the witnesses. Like Paul Hill, I find it more interesting to accept that witnesses do their best to accurately report what they see, to try to derive a picture of the characteristics of the phenomenon from those filtered cases which have stood the test of time, while ignoring the cranks and the credulous alike.
Mark's site will provide analysis of cases from the literature, including analysis of skin and eye irritation cases.
The version of this article can be found at the Temporal Doorway, on the UFO page.
Reprinted here with permission of the author.
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