3.2.1 - Why Believe in UFOs?

Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization

First Edition

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm

Why is support for the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (that UFOs are craft piloted by aliens) so widespread today? Part of the explanation must be the renewed interest in the subject of life on other planets. Ufologist B. L. Trench listed nearly 20 worldwide UFO investigative organizations;⁵⁹⁶ his favorite -- Contact -- had branch offices in 27 countries in 1971. And the television-viewing public eats it up. When the series "The Invaders"* was brought out about a decade ago, the American Broadcasting Company sold the show to fifteen foreign networks as well.⁶⁹⁵

But there is much more to the phenomenon than the current fascination with xenological topics. Man has always had religion, it is said, both to preserve moral values and to impart a measure of predictability and uniformity to the environment. In a world where morality seems as fluid as the winds and where total annihilation may be only 15 minutes away, traditional religions have been unable to supply the answers to many hard questions. It is this uneasiness about the future that has given rise to what Ronald Story appropriately labels the "new mythology".¹⁸⁷⁰

The ancient-astronautists spawned by Erich von Daniken’s writings, and the contactee cults such as the Aetherius Society,¹⁸⁷⁰ The Two,¹⁹²¹ and Gabriel Green’s Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America³³³ are extreme examples of a belief pattern suffusing our entire culture. Many people have begun to view extraterrestrial visitors not merely as friendly, but as technological angels who will guide us successfully through the uncertain years ahead.¹³⁴⁷

Just as the biblical angels were the mythical beings proper to the age of early Christianity, UFOs and their benevolent alien occupants are the mythical beings proper to the Space Age.⁶¹⁵ The famous psychiatrist Dr. Carl Gustav Jung did not find it at all surprising that scientific instead of religious imagery would be used by many to assimilate the accelerated pace of modern civilization.¹⁹²⁰ Flying saucers serve as a partial substitute for God.³⁴⁶

A related idea is the Status Inconsistency Theory of UFO sightings proposed by Donald I. Warren, a University of Michigan sociologist.³³⁶ In this theory the belief in flying saucers is linked to the degree to which a person feels alienated from society. Persons who perceive their social status (as measured by, say, income) as different from their abilities or true worth (e.g., education, ethnicity) have been found to be more likely to report UFOs than those who do not have this internal conflict. Such inconsistency forces the individual to withdraw from society to a certain extent, and the resulting void is often filled by a belief in extraterrestrial benefactors. Another modern dilemma is the virtually universal distrust of governments and politicians, and a nostalgic yearning for the great leaders of the past. There is much evidence that the known propensity of the authorities to classify and conceal has done little to reassure the public that no pertinent information on flying saucers is being withheld from them.^18,694,1347 For example, a poll taken in 1971 by the engineering periodical Industrial Research showed that 76% of the respondents believed the government was hiding some of the UFO facts. Since paranoia is self-reinforcing, the conviction that aliens are commuting to Earth has not been dampened by official proclamations to the contrary.

Finally there is the problem of boredom in daily life. With more leisure time on our hands than ever before, we seek amusement and fun. Certainly the discovery of beings from another world would be both an amusing and exciting distraction from routine. As Story points out tongue-in-cheek: "Who knows? They might even let us ride in one of their spaceships!"¹⁸⁷⁰

Carl Sagan believes that flying saucers are a kind of psychological projective test -- a "cosmic Rorschach" -- by which humans project their hopes, frailties and self-perceptions onto alien beings.¹⁵ As he says, "the idea of extraterrestrial visitation resonates with the spirit of the times in which we live."¹⁸

* The theme was that aliens are infiltrating our government as a prelude to conquest of Earth.