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The Ufo Experience: A Scientific Inquiry

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It isn't often that any book can be considered the "most important" or "most influential" in the field that it studies, but Dr. J. Allen Hynek's "UFO Experience" probably does qualify as the most important study of the UFO phenomenon ever written. Why? Unlike most UFO books, which are written by "true believers" who look uncritically at UFOs and whose authors have little or no scientific expertise, Hynek's "UFO Experience" has both the credentials and the objectivity to be taken seriously. Hynek was a respected astronomer at Northwestern University in Chicago and spent over twenty years (1948-1969) as the chief scientific analyst for the US Air Force's Project Blue Book, the government's official study of the UFO phenomenon.

What makes Hynek especially credible is that he started out as a debunker - he thought UFO's were "nonsense" and helped the Air Force to debunk most sightings. But as the years passed Hynek gradually became convinced that some UFO reports were not hoaxes or weather balloons or stars or some other "normal" phenomena and that they might represent something extraordinary - even ET visitation from other planets. In the late 1960's he became openly critical of how Blue Book's staff was handling the UFO reports it was receiving. (In many cases Blue Book's staff didn't make even a brief investigation of a UFO sighting - they simply made up an explanation and filed it away). When the Condon Report was published in 1969 and stated that the UFO phenomenon was "useless" to science, Hynek decided to set up his own organization - with as many credible scientists as possible - to continue to study UFO reports in a serious and scientific way. In 1972 he published the "UFO Experience" in part as a rebuttal to the Condon Report's dismissal of the UFO phenomenon. He points out that although the Condon Report claimed that there was no evidence that UFOs represented anything other than hoaxes and/or misidentifications of known aerial objects, the Report couldn't find "normal" explanations for nearly one-third of the UFO incidents it examined, and had to list them as "unsolved".

The "UFO Experience" still makes what many people believe to be the strongest scientific argument that UFOs deserve serious study by qualified scientists. Much of the book discusses the "Close Encounter" UFO sightings which clearly fascinated Hynek. A "Close Encounter of the First Kind" was a UFO observed at extremely close range - within 500 feet. Hynek notes that the closeness of the object helps eliminate the possibility that the witness saw an "ordinary" object - an airplane or a star, for example. A "Close Encounter of the Second Kind" is one in which the UFO physically interacts with the witness - their car shuts off, the UFO leaves burn marks on the ground, etc. And a "Close Encounter of the Third Kind" is one in which the witness actually sees "UFOnauts" either inside or outside the UFO. This last category was used as the title of Steven Spielberg's famous 1978 movie - Spielberg was an admirer of Hynek and gave him a cameo role in the movie. The book is well-written, but it is a "scientific" work and the reader should know that it sometimes contains technical and scientific language and theories. Dr. Hynek pulls no punches in his criticism of the Condon Report or other scientists who choose to ignore the evidence he cites. In short, although nearly 30 years have passed since it was published, Hynek's "UFO Experience" remains one of the best-argued scientific examinations of the UFO phenomenon. If you're interested in learning about UFOs, then this book is a good place to start. (A good "companion" volume to this book is the "Hynek UFO Report", published five years after the "UFO Experience" and which discusses actual UFO cases taken directly from the files of Project Blue Book).

Another peoples champion with partial insider knowledge trying to work out why the establishment are covering up/avoiding the UFO issue. This ordered thesis is a slice of UFO investigation from 30 years ago - have we moved on? not really. Very much along the lines of Donald Keyhoe and his crusade to highlight the circus that was called the Condon Report. This is someone who sounds credible, more so than our governments. Another essential for Ufoligists

Anyone interested in learning about UFOs must read this book. It is a primary starting point for understanding ufology. If you have already read a few other books on UFOs, you still need to read this book to gain a grounded foundation in the study of UFOs.

Everyone in the world should read this book at least once in his or her lifetime.

This book is the essential starting place for people who want to know the truth about UFOs or to understand what has gone wrong in the way they have been studied so far.

Not a true believe nor a having an agenda to make sure all UFO experiences are debunked J Allen Hyneck gives the perspective of a true scientist and his approach should have been followed.
Most UFO investigators try to make the facts fit their hypothesis! This author just collects data and look for patterns.

This seminal work of scientific enquiry was first published in 1972. It's still relevant today, and remains one of the deepest, most informed and convincing works ever published about the UFO phenomenon in all its various manifestations. The book was re-published in 1998 by Marlowe, and this later edition is reviewed here.

J. Allen Hynek, the author, was Chair of the Astronomy Department at Northwestern University and Consultant to the US Air Force during its 25-year long investigation into Unidentified Flying Objects. Hynek died in 1986, two years before Donald Keyhoe, having gone through a complete 180-degree conversion from outspoken scepticism about the UFO issue to acceptance of the phenomenon as real and to voicing open criticism, even on national TV, of the debunking and cover-up tactics deployed by the USAF in its public-relations management of the issue.

The author put forward some interesting and radical ideas about what the phenomenon might be, embracing but not necessarily restricted to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The fact that Jacques Vallee writes the foreword to this book should tell any reader right off the bat that here we are dealing with a serious enquiring mind, and what follows does not disappoint.

At 234 pages the book is divided into three sections:

1. The UFO Phenomenon - which subdivides into The laughter of science, The UFO experienced, The UFO reported, and On the strangeness of UFO reports

2. The data and the problem - Nocturnal lights, Daylight sightings, Radar reports and then an explanation of Hynek's own first, second and third kind classification system

3. Where do we go from here? - The problem with Blue Book, "Science is not always what scientists do" and finally, "The case before us"


The book is scholarly, accurate, conservative and overall, excellent. Furthermore, it is well written in a literate style, completely free of typos, well annotated with interesting appendices, absorbing and occasionally (intentionally) humorous. Hynek had a great mind and was a true expert in his subject, and could write well. We're dealing with a real phenomenon, Hynek concludes, and scientists had better take it seriously and start to investigate. The fact this has not happened in the real world since Hynek's demise could be the subject of another (much larger) book - or several.

Many millions of people who have watched Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" may be unaware that it was Hynek who originally postulated the term "Close Encounters" and divided them into those of the "First, Second and Third kind", and that Hynek actually had a cameo role in Spielberg's film.

If you're interested in understanding this phenomenon, or the long history of informed public debate about it, you should read both this book and its companion "The Hynek UFO Report", analyzing cases from Blue Book. Consider also the 1975 book "The Edge of Reality", co-authored by Vallee and Hynek.

Hynek's "UFO Experience" is right up there as one of the very best works about this phenomenon ever written, along with Edward Ruppelt's seminal 1956 "Report on Unidentified Flying Objects", Jerome Clark's 2-volume Encyclopedia (get the second edition), David Jacobs' 1975 doctoral thesis "The UFO Controversy in America", some of Jacques Vallee's books, and Timothy Good's "Above Top Secret" and its follow-ups "Beyond Top Secret" and "Need to Know".

Every serious collection of UFO literature should contain all Allen Hynek's published work - especially this one, which is the best.

This is a no-nonsense literay work from the most credible investigator on the UFO subject. This is the text book to use on UFO investigations by scholars and lay men alike.

No tin foil heads here. This guy was a scientist and was a sceptic before he examined the evidence. This is a purely objective report that makes no assumptions and just give the facts which is something you cannot say about most of the books written on this subject.

PROJECT OF DECODING OF 'THE STORMER EFFECT'
© Henadzi Filipenka
Contact: filipenko@tut.by
http://home.ural.ru/~filip
Henadzi Filipenka, 6a-7 Boldina str. Grodno 230030 Belarus
The phenomenon is described by K.Stormer in his work 'The Problem of Aurora Borealis' in the chapter entitled 'The Echo of Short Waves, Which Comes Back in Many Seconds After The Main Signal'.
In 1928 the radio engineer Jorgen Hals from Birder near Oslo informed K.Stermer about an odd radio echo received 3 seconds after the cessation of the main signal; besides, an ordinary echo encircling the Earth within 1/7 of a second was received.
In July Prof. Stermer spoke to Dr. Van-der-Paul in Andhoven and they decided to carry out experiments in autumn and send telegraphic signals in the form of undamped waves every 20 seconds three dashes one after the other. On 11 October 1928 between 15.30 and 16.00, K.Stermer heard an echo 'beyond any doubt'; the signals lasted for 1,5- 2 seconds on undamped waves 31,4 meters long.
Stermer and Hals recorded the intervals between the main signal and the mysterious echo:
1) 15, 9, 4, 8, 13, 8, 12, 10, 9, 5, 8, 7, 6
2) 12, 14, 14, 12, 8
3) 12, 5, 8
4) 12, 8, 5, 14, 14, 15, 12, 7, 5.5, 13, 8, 8, 8, 13, 9,10,7,14,6,9,5
5) 9
Atmospheric disturbances were insignificant at that time.
The frequency of echoes was equal to that of the main signal. K.Stermer explained the nature of echoes by reflection of radio waves from layers of particles ionised by the Sun. But!
The Professor of the Stenford Electrotechnical University R.Bracewell suggested possibility of informational communication through space probes between more or less developed civilisations in space. From that point of view the information about decoding of Stermer series can be found in following journals:
'Smena' No.2 Moscow 1966 , 'Astronautics and Aeronautics' No.5 USA 1973, 'Technika Molodezi' No.4 1974 and No.5 1977 Moscow, etc.
The author of this work offers the following decoding: let the numbers in the series be replaced for chemical symbols of elements with corresponding nuclear charges:
1) P F Be O Al O Mg Ne F B O N C
2) Mg Si Si Mg O
3) Mg B O
4) Mg O B Si Si P Mg N B B Al O O O Al F Ne N Si C F B
5) F
It is easy to see that the second series is repeated at the beginning of the forth series with the only difference that in the forth series silicon is alloyed with boron and phosphorus, i.e. 'p-n transition' of a diode is created. The third series describes receipt of pure boron through action on boron anhydrite by magnesium: B2O3 Mg = B ...
The author of the above hypothesis wrote his degree paper on silicon carbide light-emitting diode, that is why the ending of the forth series is the most simple- it is a modern light-emitting diode. Silicon carbide is alloyed with nitrogen and boron with 'some participation' of fluorine.
Approximately the same way diamond is alloyed with participation of fluorine in laboratories of 'other civilisations', as can be seen at the ending of the first series. In the middle of the forth series corundum, the base of ruby, is also alloyed with boron, nitrogen and
fluorine.
In the fifth series simply fluorine is educed as a useful but very aggressive gas. Inert neon seems to divide optoelectronic devices.
In conclusion, some repeated applications should be noticed: fluorine favours in a way either diffusion of boron or electronic processes in forbidden zones of diamond, silicon carbamide; for some reason magnesium contacts are used.
In 1928 semi-conductor devices were not in use on Earth.
Publishing date: February 5, 2003
Source: SciTecLibrary.com