It is a truth universally out there that any discussion of UFOs must be in want of an “X-Files” reference. For several decades at least, humans have been fascinated by the idea of extraterrestrial life, which might explain why many television viewers were as obsessed with “The X-Files” as Agent Mulder was with finding aliens. Of course, that wasn’t the first or last TV show centered on the idea of otherworldly visitors to Earth. There’s been the ever-enduring “Doctor Who” and more recently, “Project Blue Book,” with dozens of others along the way.
Since the release of U.S. Department of Defense videos showing navy pilot encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena and the announcement of a forthcoming Pentagon report on the same subject, UFOs have become an even hotter topic. For folks trying to sort out fact from rumor and alien spacecraft from weather balloon, you have lots of company. Several authors have tackled the issue.
“Wonders in the Sky” by Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck is a catalog of
UFO-type reports throughout history, from antiquity to the late 1800s. This book shows that our sky has been full of mysterious phenomena for as long as we’ve been able to notice. Eyewitness accounts of fireballs, flying shields and airborne chariots abound, though often with no other corroborating evidence available. Entries are short, but the authors provide cultural context for how the events might have been seen or interpreted, as well as astronomical information about the timing of meteors and other known phenomena as possible explanations.
Diana Walsh Pasulka has made a study of people who study UFOs. In “American Cosmic,” she argues that “UFO culture can usefully be thought of as religion — one centered on science and technology.” She notes the similarities between reported alien encounters and historical accounts of mystical experiences or miracles.
“They Are Already Here” by science journalist Sarah Scoles
also takes a deep dive into the world of UFO aficionados. She discusses the wide range of people who have this particular interest in common — scientists, the merely curious, those looking to make a buck, those who seem to live in their own private universes, conspiracy theorists, and those who are more interested in statistics than in speculation. Then, too, there are the hardcore skeptics, some of them equally obsessed in their own way.
Scoles has another book related to extraterrestrial life, this one focusing on one single person. “Making Contact, Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” is a biography of the woman was instrumental in establishing the Allen Telescope Array for the SETI Institute and who also served as Carl Sagan’s inspiration for his novel “Contact.” Scoles’ book doesn’t concentrate only on aliens. She covers very human issues in Tarter’s life, such as the experience of being a woman working in a male-dominated profession.
Are we alone in the universe? I don’t know that any of the resources I mentioned provides a definitive answer, but they do show that it’s part of human nature to ponder the question.
