The term U.F.O. or unidentified flying object is usually used to refer to any flying phenomenon which an observer can see from the surface of the earth or any other place and cannot be clearly identified with any known natural atmospheric phenomena or human-made flying devices such as airplanes, balloons or satellites. Obviously, anything which might be somehow recognized as something “earthy” is an identified object and not an UFO. But what is exactly that phenomenon which cannot be identified? Let us try to go back to the past in order to grasp a possible answer to this sort of mystery.
Reports of unusual phenomena in the sky date back to ancient times. Even though many of these sightings undoubtedly corresponded to phenomena of natural nature such as comets, meteors, planets or atmospheric optical mirages, people of those pre-scientific times were not able to interpret them in a realistic way and tended to elaborate fantastic explanations based on a primitive religious mindset. However, it was not until the 20th century that the term UFO would be appropriately applied to any observation not accounting for identified objects.
In the late 1940s, the modern UFO era would start in the most powerful country in the world. Following the end of World War II, a series of famous sightings began in the United States bringing about what would be later called “the flying saucer fever”. The first of these reports ocurred in June 24, 1947 while a businessman called kenneth Arnold was flying in his private plane near Washington. His report mentioned the observation of nine brilliant objects flying at a fantastic speed and shaped like saucers or disks. It was this description of the objects as “flying like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” that would capture the media´s attention and the general public´s imagination giving rise to the now popular nickname of “flying saucer or disk” when referring to UFOs.
Over the last decades many theories have arisen to explain this phenomenon over a scientific basis but it has been rather fruitless owing to the obvious fact that “ufomania” is a kind of cultural fashion among many people in the modern world who unconciously want to believe in “something else”. Some psychologists who have studied western society have suggested that the increasing weakening of religious influence on peoples´ lives, combined with permanent states of political crisis, have triggered this new and modern version of a collective neurosis, as Freud used to call it. Nevertheless, there is no definite solution for this puzzle until empirical evidence can provide a subjective UFO experience with enough objectivity to “identify” the “unidentifyable”.
Reports of unusual phenomena in the sky date back to ancient times. Even though many of these sightings undoubtedly corresponded to phenomena of natural nature such as comets, meteors, planets or atmospheric optical mirages, people of those pre-scientific times were not able to interpret them in a realistic way and tended to elaborate fantastic explanations based on a primitive religious mindset. However, it was not until the 20th century that the term UFO would be appropriately applied to any observation not accounting for identified objects.
In the late 1940s, the modern UFO era would start in the most powerful country in the world. Following the end of World War II, a series of famous sightings began in the United States bringing about what would be later called “the flying saucer fever”. The first of these reports ocurred in June 24, 1947 while a businessman called kenneth Arnold was flying in his private plane near Washington. His report mentioned the observation of nine brilliant objects flying at a fantastic speed and shaped like saucers or disks. It was this description of the objects as “flying like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” that would capture the media´s attention and the general public´s imagination giving rise to the now popular nickname of “flying saucer or disk” when referring to UFOs.
Over the last decades many theories have arisen to explain this phenomenon over a scientific basis but it has been rather fruitless owing to the obvious fact that “ufomania” is a kind of cultural fashion among many people in the modern world who unconciously want to believe in “something else”. Some psychologists who have studied western society have suggested that the increasing weakening of religious influence on peoples´ lives, combined with permanent states of political crisis, have triggered this new and modern version of a collective neurosis, as Freud used to call it. Nevertheless, there is no definite solution for this puzzle until empirical evidence can provide a subjective UFO experience with enough objectivity to “identify” the “unidentifyable”.
1 comentario:
I´ve just seen a martian rolling on my bed, got lotta legs, heads, arms and all, you know, it kind of wanted to kidnap me and take me to its freaky place outta space. And it looked like that goddamn miss in the pic!
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