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User:Feoffer/sandbox History of UFO mythology

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In the 20th-century United States, popular folklore included stories of flying saucers or unidentified flying objects (UFOs). In sharp contrast from fringe UFO researchers (or "ufologists") who entertain the historicity of UFOs, mainstream researchers examine UFO stories through the lens of Folklore Studies.[1]

Overview edit

Folklore frequently features unknown objects in the sky. Mystery airship, reported worldwide during the 1880s and 1890s,[2] are seen as a cultural predecessor to 20th-century claims of extraterrestrial-piloted flying saucer-style UFOs.[3]


 
Overview of UFO folklore

Mythos overview edit

The "Nuts and Bolts" folklore describes UFOs as physical objects which are sighted or even recovered. [4][5][6] Atomic folklore describes UFOs as associated with atomic research or nuclear weapons. "Contactee" folklore describes UFOs as entities capable of 'telepathic' communication. Hoax and Conspiracy folklore describes UFOs as being associated with human deception; In some legends, UFOs are the product of a intentional lies, while other stories hold that UFOs are being "covered up" by agents of deception. Finally, a strand of folklore holds that UFOs are the product of Malevolent or Demonic beings.

Roswell timeline edit

1947 edit

  • Kenneth Arnold sighting ignites 1947 flying disc craze.
  • July 7
    • Rancher informs Sheriff of discovered debris.
    • Marcel and Sheridan travel to ranch and collect debris.
  • July 8 -
    • Press reports discovery
    • Marcel flies with debris to Ft. Worth
    • Ft. Worth press conference identifies debris as weather balloon

Renewed interest edit

  • 1978 - National Enquirer reprints original, uncorrected reporting from July 7
  • February 1978 - Stanton Friedman interviews Jesse Marcel
  • December 19, 1979 - Marcel was interviewed by Bob Pratt of the National Enquirer
  • February 28, 1980 - Enquirer publishes Marcel story
  • September 20, 1980 - In Search Of... airs segment on Roswell incident
  • October 1980 - Berlitz & Moore's book The Roswell Incident released
  • August 1985 - HBO's American Undercover airs interview with Marcel
  • September 20, 1989
    • Unsolved Mysteries airs segment on Roswell incident
    • Mortician Glenn Dennis claims involvement
  • 1991
    • Randle & Schmitt's book UFO Crash at Roswell released
    • Dennis and Haute open UFO Museum in Roswell
  • 1992 - Friedman & Berliner's book Crash at Corona released
  • September 17, 1993 - Deep Throat, the second episode of The X-Files, discusses the Roswell incident.
  • 1994 - US Air Force report on Roswell
  • August 28, 1995 - Alien Autopsy hoax
  • July 3, 1996 - Sci-Fi film Independence Day released
  • 1997 - Philip Corso's book The Day After Roswell released

"Nuts and Bolts" folklore edit

In the earliest and most popular tales, UFOs are viewed as physical objects which can be sighted, detected by radar, or photographed. In some legends, UFOs are said to explode, crash, or land, with humans recovering debris or even entire craft. April 1947 issue of Forgotten Mysteries.

Aerial sightings edit

Photography edit

Engine stoppage, power loss, and instrument failure edit

A recurring motif in folklore was engines that cease working in the presences of UFOs.

  • In October 1946, Raymond Palmer's Amazing Stories published "The Green Man" by Harold M. Sherman. In that story, an astronomer is driving a car when the engine stops as a result of an a beam-of-energy from a cigar-shaped craft inhabited by Christ-like visitor intent on bringing world peace. Folklorists suspect the story influenced both engine stoppage and Contactee narratives in UFO folklore.[9]
  • The 1948 serial Bruce Gentry – Daredevil of the Skies features flying saucers that interfere with instruments of nearby aircraft. At the time, no public claims existed of flying saucers affecting electronic equipment. [10]
  • In 1951, The Day The Earth Stood Still featured Flying Saucers which interfere with power and engines, bringing Earth to a standstill.
  • In 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind features a lineman whose truck loses power in the presence of a UFO.
  • In the 2005 book Faded Giant, author Robert Salas alleged missile shutdown associated with UFO at Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1965.
  • September 9, 1976 - The Tehran UFO incident includes a story of multiple planes experiencing loss of function in the presence of UFOs.
  • 1986's Flight of the Navigator features an electrical blackout after a UFO crashes into power lines.

Transmedium travel edit

Some folklore describes UFOs as traveling through water or even solid objects.

  • In 1946, Dirk Wylie penned a letter to Amazing Stories in which he reported two instances of having witnessed unidentified objects. In Wylie's telling, an object repeatedly rose out of the ocean and returned to it.[11]
  • In 1970, the book Invisible Residents speculated about underwater intelligences.
  • The 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension includes nonhumans who can travel through solid rock.
  • The 1986 film Flight of the Navigator featured a UFO that can submerge in the ocean.
  • In the summer of 1988, Bill Cooper authored a document claiming that in 1966 he was serving aboard the USS Tiru when he and fellow Navy personnel witnessed a metal craft "larger than a football field" repeatedly enter and exit the water.[12][13] Cooper claimed he was instructed by superiors to never speak about the incident.[12]
  • The Abyss (1989) features ocean-dwelling UFOs near atomic weapons.

Debris and retrieval edit

Artifacts edit

Ancient astronauts edit

Atomic folklore edit

In both UFO folklore and popular culture, UFOs have been associated with atomic or nuclear energy.[20][21][22][23].[24] Other stories connect UFOs to developments in rocketry.

The June 24, 1947 Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred not far from Hanford plutonium plant. On July 6, news reports quoted an unnamed "noted scientist" at CalTech who claimed flying discs were associated with atomic energy experiments.[25] Two days later, Roswell Army Air Field, home to the world's only atomic bomber force, issued a press release announcing recovery of a "flying disc".[26] A December 1949 report prepared for the Air Force speculated about a hypothetical link between atom energy and flying discs,[27][28] and a 1952 memo reports UFOs "in the vicinity of atomic energy production and testing facilities", listing the three hotspots as "the Seattle area, the Albuquerque area and the New York-Philadelphia area". [29]

On March 16, 1967, Malmstrom Air Force base personnel reportedly observed a UFO which rendered ten of their nuclear missiles inoperable. [30][31]

Atomic folklore continues to the present: Former Pentagon UFO investigator Luis Elizondo recalled "when I was at AATIP, we were under the presumption that there was definitely a connection between UAP activity and our nuclear energy".[32]

  • September, 1944 - Hanford reactor, the first industrial-scale plutonium production facility, goes online.[33]
  • July 16, 1945 - Trinity test, the first detonation of a nuclear device.
  • June 24, 1947 - Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting
  • July 6, 1947 - News report speculating a link between 'flying disks' and atomic energy.[34]
  • May 1949- "It is a jittery age we live in, particularly since our scientists and military spokesmen have started talking about sending rockets to the moon and about experiments to by-pass the law of gravitation by creating a man-made planet that will streak off the earth at 25,000 miles per hour or so and start circling in our orbit. Though we have not yet produced the rocket-to-the-moon and the homemade satellite, it is small wonder that harassed humans, already suffering from atomic psychosis, have started seeing saucers and Martians."[35]
  • 1950 book The Flying Saucers Are Real repeats July '47 speculation of link between atomic energy and flying saucers. [36][37]
  • September 1951 - The Day The Earth Stood Still premieres with a plot that connects UFOs and atomic energy.
  • January 3, 1952 - Garland memo lists three hotspots: one near Seattle, one near Albuquerque, and one "between New York and Philadelphia".[38]
  • June 21, 1952 - Oak Ridge air defense gives an F-47 permission to fire on an unidentified object[39]
  • July 3, 1952 - Press report mentions three hotspots, each near an atomic facility, plus baltic sea[40]
  • In the 2005 book Faded Giant, author Robert Salas alleged missile shutdown associated with UFO at Malmstrom Air Force Base on March 16 1967.[41]
  • 2008 - Robert L. Hastings publishes "UFO and Nukes"
  • 2014 - USS Theodore Roosevelt incident
  • 2019 - Black triangle sighting off US East Coast[42]



Rockets

Telepathy & Contactee folklore edit

Hoax and conspiracy edit

Many strands of folklore attribute UFOs to intentional hoaxes or pranks. In some stories, agents of deception attempt to cover-up the existence of UFOs or their occupants.

Debris and craft retrieval hoaxes edit

  • July 5, 1950 - Balloon with "sickening gas" reported to be a prank by FBI superior Guy Bannister.[44][45]

Reverse engineering edit

Reproduction vehicles edit

Alien bodies edit

  • December 1949 article (and later a 1950 book) The Flying Saucers Are Real features the Aztec Hoax, a story of crashed saucer including dead bodies of three feet tall men in metallic suits.[46][47]
  • 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers by Variety columnist Frank Scully discusses Aztec UFO.
  • 1991 - Cape Girardeau UFO story reported in Ufology newsletter [48]

Crop circles edit

Men in Black edit

Purported counter-intellience or conspirators edit

Majestic 12 edit

Nazis, Operation Paperclip, and UFOs edit

See also: Nazi UFO
  • UFO (1956) - penemunde scientist suggests veracity of UFOs
  • Le Matin des Magiciens ("The Morning of the Magicians"), a 1960 book by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, made many spectacular claims about the Vril Society of Berlin.[49] Several years later writers, including Jan van Helsing,[50][51] Norbert-Jürgen Ratthofer,[52] and Vladimir Terziski, have built on their work, connecting the Vril Society with UFOs. Among their claims, they imply that the society may have made contact with an alien race and dedicated itself to creating spacecraft to reach the aliens. In partnership with the Thule Society and the Nazi Party, the Vril Society developed a series of flying disc prototypes. With the Nazi defeat, the society allegedly retreated to a base in Antarctica and vanished into the hollow Earth to meet up with the leaders of an advanced race inhabiting inner Earth.
  • The Indiana Jones film series (1981-2008) would revisit Nazi Occultists searching for supernatural artifacts, including Roswell Debris.
  • X-Files - mention of Paperclip
  • Contact - Olympic Broadcast initiates contact

Government communication edit

Government invites landing edit

Government treaty edit

  • Behold a Pale Horse (1991) alleged the human collusion with nonhumans.
  • Sneakers (1992): "The key meeting took place July 1, 1958 when the Air Force brought the space visitor to the white house for an interview with President Eisenhower. And Ike said: Hey, look, give us your technology, we'll give all the cow lips you want"
  • August 11, 1992 - Tabloid Weekly World News claims Aliens back Clinton
  • X-Files features a treaty between human elites and nonhumans.
  • American Horror Story: Double Feature (2021) features an Eisenhower treaty with nonhumans as a major plot point.

Hollow earth edit

Antarctica edit

Malevolence and Demons edit

Many stories claim that UFOs are tied to malevolent entities or demons.

Occult edit

  • Jack Parsons and Flying Saucers (?)
  • Contactees revealed to be occultists

Abductions edit

Military abductions edit

  • In 1995, at the fifth annual International UFO Congress, Melinda Leslie reported having been abducted by humans in military uniforms following an alien abduction experience [53]
  • Jose Chung's From Outer Space (1996)

Mutilations edit

Underground bases edit

  • Fred Crisman - Burmese cave story (1945)

Dulce Base edit

  • Strange Harvest inteview Dulce, NM mutiliation
  • Doty & Bennewitz
  • Lear & Cooper

History edit

Flying discs and flying saucers edit

Main article: 1947 flying disc craze

The Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed that he saw a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). This was the first post-World War II sighting in the United States that garnered nationwide news coverage and is credited with being the first of the modern era of UFO sightings, including numerous reported sightings over the next two to three weeks. Arnold's description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms flying saucer and flying disc as popular descriptive terms for UFOs. In the weeks that followed Arnold's June 1947 story, at least several hundred reports of similar sightings flooded in from the U.S. and around the world—most of which described saucer-shaped objects.[55] A sighting by a United Airlines crew of another nine disk-like objects over Idaho on July 4 probably garnered more newspaper coverage than Arnold's original sighting and opened the floodgates of media coverage in the days to follow.

Major UFO incidents of 1948 edit

Main articles: Mantell UFO incident, Gorman dogfight, and Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter

On January 7, 1948, Captain Thomas Mantell, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, died in the crash of his fighter near Franklin, Kentucky after being sent in pursuit of an unidentified flying object (UFO). The event was among the most publicized early UFO incidents.

The Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter occurred in the early hours of July 24, 1948, in the skies near Montgomery, Alabama.[56] Two commercial pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted, claimed to have observed a "glowing object" pass by their plane before it appeared to pull up into a cloud and travel out of sight.[57]

The Gorman dogfight was a widely publicized UFO incident which took place on October 1, 1948, in the skies over Fargo, North Dakota. United States Air Force (USAF) Captain Edward J. Ruppelt wrote in his bestselling and influential The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects that the "dogfight" was one of three "classic" UFO incidents in 1948 that "proved to [Air Force] intelligence specialists that UFOs were real," along with the Chiles-Whitted UFO encounter and the Mantell UFO incident.[58] However, in 1949 the USAF concluded that the Gorman dogfight had been caused by a lighted weather balloon.[59]

Al Chop and The True Story of Flying Saucers edit

Main article: Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers

In 1956, Hollywood producer Clarence Greene collaborated with Air Force public information officer Albert M. Chop, who was in charge of answering UFO questions. When Chop told Greene about the existence of film footage of UFOs, Greene obtained the footage for analysis and display in his documentary.[60]

The documentary includes recreations of the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, the Mantell UFO incident, and the Gorman Dogfight. Project Sign and Project Blue Book, the Air Force studies of the UFO phenomenon, are discussed. Although initially a UFO debunker, Chop comes to believe that UFOs are unknown, and possibly extraterrestrial, aircraft. Chop interviews a German rocket scientist (formerly of Penemunde's V2 program) working for Americans who supports the possibility that UFOs exist.[61]

The documentary analyzes two famous pieces of UFO footage: the Mariana UFO Incident of 1950 and the 1952 UFO film taken near the Great Salt Lake in Utah by US Navy photographer Delbert Newhouse. The documentary concludes with the famous 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident and Chop stating his belief that UFOs are a "real", physical phenomenon of unknown origin.[62]

July 1989 MUFON Convention edit

External videos
  Bill Moore addresses Mufon '89

The Mutual UFO Network held their 1989 annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 1, 1989.

The Ufologist Bill Moore was scheduled as the main speaker, and he refused to submit his paper for review prior to the convention, and also announced that he would not answer any follow-up questions as was common practice. Unlike most of the convention's attendees, Moore did not stay at the same hotel that was hosting the convention.

When he spoke, Moore said that he and others had been part of an elaborate, long-term disinformation campaign begun primarily to discredit Paul Bennewitz: "My role in the affair ... was primarily that of a freelancer providing information on Paul's (Bennewitz) current thinking and activities".[63] Air Force Sergeant Richard C. Doty was also involved, said Moore, though Moore thought Doty was "simply a pawn in a much larger game, as was I."[63] One of their goals, Moore said, was to disseminate information and watch as it was passed from person to person in order to study information channels.

Moore said that he "was in a rather unique position" in the disinformation campaign: "judging by the positions of the people I knew to be directly involved in it, [the disinformation] definitely had something to do with national security. There was no way I was going to allow the opportunity to pass me by ... I would play the disinformation game, get my hands dirty just often enough to lead those directing the process into believing I was doing what they wanted me to do, and all the while continuing to burrow my way into the matrix so as to learn as much as possible about who was directing it and why."[64] Once he finished the speech, Moore immediately left the hotel and Las Vegas that same night.

Moore's claims sent shock waves through the small, tight-knit UFO community, which remains divided as to the reliability of his assertions.

References edit

  1. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=K_R0CQAAQBAJ
  2. ^ Clark, Jerome (1993), Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena, Detroit: Visible Ink Press, ISBN 0-8103-9436-7.
  3. ^ Reece 2007, p. 14.
  4. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=ATZGAAAAYAAJ
  5. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=oQAbAAAAMAAJ
  6. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=nCLWnFozM6EC&pg=PA63
  7. ^ https://skepticalinquirer.org/2020/03/general-nathan-f-twining-and-the-flying-disc-problem-of-1947/
  8. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/685468479/
  9. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Q43mDwAAQBAJ
  10. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Q43mDwAAQBAJ
  11. ^ https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v20n02_1946-05.Ziff-Daviscape1736/page/n150/
  12. ^ a b Jacobson, Mark (2018). Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America. Blue Rider Press. ISBN 9780399169953.
  13. ^ "USS Tiru UFO Sighting".
  14. ^ "One Flying Saucer Lands In New Mexico" (12 October 1949 Variety) and "Flying Saucers Dismantled, Secrets May Be Lost" (23 November 1949 Variety).
  15. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/56492357/
  16. ^ https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/klerksdorp-spheres
  17. ^ October 2, 1979, issue of the National Enquirer
  18. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/566291780
  19. ^ Shklovskii & Sagan (1966), pp. 448–464 Chapter 33: "The Possible Consequences of Direct Contact"
  20. ^ https://www.history.com/news/ufos-near-nuclear-facilities-uss-roosevelt-rendlesham
  21. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=RlfmwAEACAAJ
  22. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Mzc6R2LH24kC&pg=139
  23. ^ Dominique Delpiroux, OVNIS. Jean-Jacques Velasco : « On nous surveille », ladepeche.fr, 7 mars 2007 : {{citation}}: Empty citation (help).
  24. ^ "The I-Team’s own Freedom of Information Act request filed in 1992 produced a thick stack of documents from the Department of Energy, indicating UFO incidents over every major atomic weapons facility dating to the late 1940s" 8newsnow.com
  25. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37262776/atomic-energy-experiments-explain/
  26. ^ Robert Hastings, UFOs and Nukes, Ch 27
  27. ^ http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5883/pg5883.txt
  28. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Mzc6R2LH24kC&pg=PA138
  29. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/1952a.htm
  30. ^ https://www.cufon.org/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm
  31. ^ Unidentified, S2E3 "UFOs vs Nukes" at 08:15
  32. ^ Unidentified, S2E3 "UFOs vs Nukes" at 23:30
  33. ^ Hanford Cultural Resources Program, U.S. Department of Energy (2002). Hanford Site Historic District: History of the Plutonium Production Facilities, 1943–1990. Columbus, OH: Battelle Press. p. 1.22–1.27. doi:10.2172/807939. ISBN 1-57477-133-7.
  34. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/37262776/atomic-energy-experiments-explain/
  35. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/satevepost_5749.htm
  36. ^ https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/fsar/fsar17.htm
  37. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/cosmojan51.htm
  38. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/1952a.htm
  39. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/1952a.htm
  40. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/1952a.htm
  41. ^ https://www.cufon.org/cufon/malmstrom/malm1.htm
  42. ^ https://www.thedebrief.org/fast-movers-and-transmedium-vehicles-the-pentagons-uap-task-force/
  43. ^ http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,137890,00.html
  44. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/image/206985545/
  45. ^ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8277269/the-ottawa-journal/
  46. ^ https://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/fsar/fsar17.htm
  47. ^ http://www.project1947.com/fig/cosmojan51.htm
  48. ^ https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN69.pdf
  49. ^ Pauwels, Louis; Bergier, Jacques (1967). Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend: Von der Zukunft der phantastischen Vernunft (in German). ISBN 3-442-11711-9.
  50. ^ Van Helsing, Jan (1993). Geheimgesellschaften und ihre Macht im 20. Jahrhundert (in German). Rhede, Emsland: Ewert. ISBN 3-89478-069-X.
  51. ^ Van Helsing, Jan (1997). Unternehmen Aldebaran. Kontakte mit Menschen aus einem anderen Sonnensystem (in German). Lathen: Ewertlag. ISBN 3-89478-220-X.
  52. ^ Jürgen-Ratthofer, Norbert; Ettl, Ralf (1992). Das Vril-Projekt. Der Endkampf um die Erde (in German). self-published.
  53. ^ https://www.deseret.com/1995/12/1/19207529/abducted-by-aliens-and-by-secret-military
  54. ^ Operation Cattle Mutilation, Section 1, FBI, Released under FOIA
  55. ^ Correll, John T. (June 1, 2011) "USAF and the UFOs Archived 2021-10-30 at the Wayback Machine. Air Force Magazine. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  56. ^ Peebles, p. 22
  57. ^ Peebles, pp. 22–23
  58. ^ Ruppelt, p. 30
  59. ^ Ruppelt, p. 31
  60. ^ Richard Dyer MacCann (May 1, 1956). "'Flying Saucers' and Papagos: Hollywood Letter". Christian Science Monitor. p. 7.
  61. ^ Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. Garland. 1985. ISBN 9780824062637.
  62. ^ Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, the 21st Century Edition. McFarland. 12 January 2017. ISBN 9781476625058.
  63. ^ a b Clark The UFO Book, p. 163
  64. ^ Clark The UFO Book, p. 164
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