The UFO trend, away from the phenomenon, toward the witness

Copyright 2019, InterAmerica, Inc.

A small dust-up with Bryan Sentes as MJ Banias’ Facebook page the other day lead me into an Anomalist link about the film pictured.

I was grumpy with Bryan because he was slightly distraught that MJ had abandoned his recent interest in “Cultural Ufology” – the application of the social sciences to the UFO enigma,

Cultural Ufology thinks that the witness and/or social milieu are more important or, at least, as significant as the UFO phenomenon itself.

And the film promoters, plus a few UFO personalities (Greg Bishop and Miguel Romero), are flogging the Alan Stivelman film with statements like this:

“this film does not promote simplistic interpretations of the UFO phenomenon. What it does do, says Romero, is ‘remind us that it is in the human part of the UFO equation that we should be paying attention to.’”

This idea has been fondled by the great Jacques Vallee and his minions, who are thrusting it forward as a solution to the UFO mystery.

Admittedly, when one is ill, a doctor will examine his/her patient, and come to a diagnosis of their illness, and maybe even get a clue as to what is causing the sickness, and why.

But while the study of UFO witnesses is interesting, to social scientists, psychologists, and academics like Bryan Sentes, and to some ufologists, it’s like a bad GPS signal; that is, it leads us nowhere.

UFOs are unencumbered by the witness, the phenomenon behaving or appearing without a stint of concern for who sees it and how they are impacted or affected by the UFO.

Yes, as the film, noted above indicates, and some UFO accounts tell us, people are affected by their observation or encounters with UFOs. (See José Caravaca’s long litany of UFO interactions with humans.)

But does that tell us what UFOs are?

The movement toward the observer and/or the social consequences may be interesting but neither (or none) has anything to do with the UFO reality.

It’s playing at being scientific or smart, but that’s only egotism at work, not real investigation of a truly mysterious phenomenon.

RR