Of NASA, Spaceships, Politics & Probes

A pilot/politician's take on UFOs.

“I hear the food is great in this galaxy”

For the first time ever, NASA is going to take up the question of all those citizen “sightings” of craft from outer space and claims that their alien pilots or passengers — or pieces of them — are in federal custody. I don’t expect them to confirm any of the reports. In fact, thus far they have found no evidence that inter-galactic visitors have come our way. Experience tells me the agency will do little more than mollify politicians who know a winning issue when they see one and have pushed them to spend millions analyzing photos, video recordings, and other evidence.

First of all, let’s deal with the terminology. What used to be called UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are now officially UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena). But frankly, I think most people continue to call these things — flying saucers? cigar-shaped spacecraft? super-accelerating orbs? — UFOs. This is the acronym still used at annual UFO festivals like the one held early this month in Exeter, New Hampshire, and it’s the term that pollsters use as they try to find out what the nation thinks about them.

In the company’s most recent poll, taken last year, 41 percent told the Gallup that they believe in UFOs. By this they mean that they believe that alien craft have visited Earth. This is a record number, but it pales in comparison with the 63 percent who told IPSOS pollsters that they believe the government is hiding information about extraterrestrials. Republicans and Democrats are in rough agreement on this issue and independent voters are slightly ahead of both.

Consider the poll numbers and you understand why a House subcommittee recently held a hearing on UFOs and the government’s response to reports of sightings and claims that it is in possession of pieces of crashed spacecraft AND “nonhuman biologics,” which seems to mean alien bodies, or pieces of them. (So far, those that have been subject to expert exams have been explained in prosaic terms. Most recently “alien bodies” revealed in Mexico, proved to be ancient mummies from Peru\.)

Although no UFO/aliens claim has ever been substantiated, the whole subject sparks curiosity. Indeed, it excites so many people — you? — that Congressional subcommittee chairman Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin recently held a hearing that began with him saying, “Welcome to the most exciting subcommittee in Congress this week.” He then presided over the testimony of witnesses including military pilots who spoke of seeing strange objects in the sky and whistleblowers who said they were punished by their superiors for speaking out about their experiences.

Congressional support for the the space-ships-and-aliens crowd is bipartisan and seems to echo the witnesses suspicions that the government is hiding something. Today it seems like everyone suspects the government is hiding something which says more about the power of those who traffic in claims of government conspiracies — Donald Trump is a key example — and have led us into an age of mistrust.

At the hearing, Republican Grothman said government should make public its files on UFOs. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who is one of the most intellectual people on Capitol Hill, , told reporters he was going to “read-up” on the subject and that he would like to hear “more fulsome testimony” from officials charged with investigating reports of sightings and supposed alien contacts.

For decades the military has engaged in a kind of dance with members of the public who believe there’s something “out there” and their supporters among elected officials who see nothing but benefits in playing along with their constituents. It’s easy for the pols to join the chorus of doubt. There is no better way to get press attention, and win devoted followers, than to join citizens who are crusading for one sort of “truth” or another. Likewise, there’s little for be gained by shooting down the concerns of constituents, even if they are a bit extreme.

But having flown over 5,500 hours all over the world — except the poles, where some people think that space aliens have secret under-the-ice bases — I am a true skeptic. This is not to say I haven’t experienced a few weird things while in the sky. On several occasions St. Elmo’s fire, an electrical phenomenon that occurs around thunderstorms, has danced across my windscreen. And when I flew in the Iraq war some jokers flashed laser beams into my cockpit. (Forewarned, we wore special goggles to avoid being blinded.)

Since I was a little kid, space has gotten my attention. My dad and I used to lay out at night and see shooting stars, satellites, and discuss God and his universe. But it is huge. Like unable-to-grasp-huge. I’m a UFO skeptic because I’ve yet to see convincing evidence that supports any of the hundreds of incidents people have reported and the chances that a culture countless light years away would single us out for observations or visits is infinitesimal. Likewise, the technology required to travel from one corner of the universe to another makes it highly unlikely that visitors who make it to our planet would either crash or be captured, as some believers insist.

And what about the quality of reports from people who say they have been taken aboard alien craft, examined and then released? They generally tell similar stories, describing big-headed, big-eyed creatures who are not green but gray, and of physical exams/experiments that included anal probes.

The gray-colored skin was reported by the very first Americans who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in a UFO — Betty and Barney Hill Hill of New Hampshire. The Hills claimed to have lost three hours of time as they drove from Montreal to New Hampshire and that during these hours they had been aboard an alien craft where they encountered the gray creatures.

Trouble was that Barney also said they reminded him of a “red-haired Irishman” and after psychiatric exams the Hills’ story was chalked up to a shared hysteria linked to extreme stress. Within a few years Betty was a conspiracy theorist who published a book that included accounts of bigfoot and mystery helicopters. (Two subjects that remain current with the conspiracy-obsessed.) Meanwhile, after the Hills mentioned the grays in their abduction story everyone else wanted to be consistent. Such is the power of suggestion, or the construction of a hoax that aliens are almost always gray.

And what of the anal probes? The record here is spotty, with the best-publicized early examples coming in books written by a former novelist name Whitley Strieber who made a lucrative industry out of books about aliens and abductions. The first related his own abduction. Titled Communion, it sold 2 million copies, which obviously made him rich. The most likely explanation for his stories was that he suffered from a neurological condition that produces intense dreams before waking. Nevertheless he insisted his abduction happened and published many more books on the subject including a novel called The Grays. Soon enough, others were claiming that they too had been probed. For his part Strieber continued to spread his message as a lecturer and radio host.

Altogether the evidence of UFOs and abductions is too thin for me to reach the conclusion that that grays are flying here from across the galaxies and practicing both abductions and rather rude medical exams. I’m not saying believers are irrational fools. In fact I think that UFOs deserve more serious examination. And as my belief in one otherworldly phenomena shows, I am not reflexively dismissive when it comes to controversial beliefs. I do think there is something to ghosts!