Ufology, sometimes written UFOlogy, is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors ). While there are instances of government , private , and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as an example of pseudoscience .
31-663: Steven Macon Greer (born 1955) is an American ufologist and a retired physician. He founded the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) and the Disclosure Project, which seeks the disclosure of alleged classified UFO information . Greer was born in Charlotte, North Carolina , in 1955. He claims he saw an unidentified flying object at close range when he was eight years old, and another UFO when he
62-472: A crowdfunded documentary featuring Greer was released. It was directed by Michael Mazzola and narrated by Giancarlo Esposito . After debuting on iTunes and digital platforms on May 9, Unacknowledged moved to the number 1 documentary spot on those platforms internationally, and number 2 in the U.S. Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact has Begun was released April 2020. The documentary
93-550: A factor in changing attitudes towards UFOs. In 2022, NASA announced a nine-month study starting in the fall to help establish a road map for investigating UAP – or for reconnaissance of the publicly available data it might use for such research. In 2023, the RAND Corporation published a study reviewing 101,151 public reports of UAP sightings in the United States from 1998 to 2022. The models used to conduct
124-623: A good photograph." Ufology Ufology is a neologism derived from UFO (a term apparently coined by Edward J. Ruppelt ), and is derived from appending the acronym UFO with the suffix -logy (from the Ancient Greek -λογία ( -logia )). Early uses of ufology include an article in Fantastic Universe (1957) and a 1958 presentation for the UFO "research organization" The Planetary Center. The roots of ufology include
155-575: A physician in favor of his ufology activities. Greer founded the Center for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) in 1990 to create a diplomatic and research-based initiative to contact extraterrestrial civilizations. The group defined CE-5 or ' close encounters of the fifth kind' as human initiated contact and communication with extraterrestrial life. CSETI claims to have over 3,000 confirmed reports of UFO sightings by pilots and over 4,000 of what they describe as landing traces. The organisation uses 'Rapid Mobilisation Investigative Teams' with
186-831: A press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that featured 20 retired Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration and intelligence officers. In 2013, Greer co-produced Sirius , a documentary detailing his work and hypotheses regarding extraterrestrial life, government cover-ups and close encounters of the fifth kind. The film was directed by Amardeep Kaleka and narrated by Thomas Jane , and covers Greer's 2006 book Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge . The movie premiered on April 22, 2013, in Los Angeles, California, and features interviews from former government and military officials. Sirius depicts
217-471: A significant political force in South America, has been noted as a contributing factor in their decline. Starting in the 1940s, governmental agencies and private groups sponsored investigations, studies, and conferences related to ufology. Typically motivated by visual UFO sightings, the goals of these studies included critical evaluation of the observational evidence, attempts to resolve and identify
248-551: A six-inch (15 cm) human skeleton known as the Atacama skeleton , which they claimed was an alien skeleton. However, genetic evidence demonstrated that it was human, with genetic markers found in "indigenous women from the Chilean region of South America". The director of the center that did the analysis said: "It's an interesting medical mystery of an unfortunate human with a series of birth defects." In 2017, Unacknowledged ,
279-572: A threat to U.S. national security. A large number of private organizations dedicated to the study, discussion, and publicity of ufology and other UFO-related topics exist worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland. Along with such "pro-UFO" groups are skeptic organizations that emphasize the pseudoscientific nature of ufology. During the annual World UFO Day (2 July), ufologists and associated organizations raise public awareness of ufology to "tell
310-497: A touch of Guy Pearce ." Writing in the Los Angeles Times , critic Noel Murray reported that the film was "overlong and rambling — more concerned with disconnected anecdotes than making a compelling case or telling an interesting story." John Defore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "is far too impassioned in its nuttiness to be a purely cynical, Scientology-style sham," that it "rather strangely squeezes
341-620: Is not embraced by academia as a scientific field of study, and is instead generally considered a pseudoscience by skeptics and science educators , being often included on lists of topics characterized as pseudoscience as either a partial or total pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a term that classifies arguments that are claimed to exemplify the methods and principles of science, but do not adhere to an appropriate scientific method , lack supporting evidence, plausibility, falsifiability , or otherwise lack scientific status. Some writers have identified social factors that contribute to
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#1732801301344372-584: Is one of the critics featured in Gerald Peary 's 2009 documentary film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism . Gleiberman's autobiography, Movie Freak , was published by Hachette Books . He and his wife Sharon live in New York City with their three daughters. In 2016, Gleiberman incited controversy over a piece on the film Bridget Jones's Baby , in which he denigrated
403-616: The Roswell Incident of 1947, the Majestic 12 documents, and UFO disclosure advocates. Skeptic Robert Sheaffer has accused ufology of having a "credulity explosion," writing that "the kind of stories generating excitement and attention in any given year would have been rejected by mainstream ufologists a few years earlier for being too outlandish." The physicist James E. McDonald also identified "cultism" and "extreme...subgroups" as negatively impacting ufology. During
434-747: The United Kingdom , Canada, Denmark, Italy, and Sweden also ended. An exception to this trend is France, which maintains the GEIPAN program, formerly known as GEPAN (1977–1988) and SEPRA (1988–2004), operated by the French Space Agency CNES . On 14 September 2023, NASA reported the appointment, for the first time, of a Director of U.A.P. (known earlier as U.F.O.), identified as Mark McInerney , to scientifically and transparently study such occurrences. Despite investigations sponsored by governments and private entities, ufology
465-728: The University of Missouri from 1973 to 1980, and the National Press Club's Disclosure Project in 2001. Additionally, the United Nations from 1977 to 1979 sponsored meetings and hearings concerning UFO sightings. In August 2020, the United States Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to detect, analyze and catalog unidentified aerial phenomena that could potentially pose
496-402: The University of Würzburg is developing intelligent sensors that can help detect and analyze aerial objects in hopes of applying such technology to UAP. A 2021 Gallup poll found that belief among Americans in some UFOs being extraterrestrial spacecraft grew between 2019 and 2021 from 33% to 41%. Gallup cited increased coverage in mainstream news and scrutiny from government authorities as
527-579: The " mystery airships " of the late 1890s, the " foo fighters " reported by Allied airmen during World War II , the "ghost fliers" of Europe and North America during the 1930s, the " ghost rockets " of Scandinavia (mainly Sweden) in 1946, and the Kenneth Arnold "flying saucer" sighting of 1947. Media attention to the Arnold sighting helped publicize the concept of flying saucers . Publicity of UFOs increased after World War II, coinciding with
558-534: The Cold War, ufology was synthesized with the ideas of a Trotskyist movement in South America known as Posadism . Posadism's main theorist, Juan Posadas , believed the human race must "appeal to the beings on other planets...to intervene and collaborate with Earth's inhabitants in suppressing poverty;" i.e., Posadas wished to collaborate with extraterrestrials to create a socialist system on Earth. The adoption of this belief among Posadists, who had previously been
589-707: The aim of arriving at landing sites as quickly as possible. CSETI has defined a protocol for human initiated contact to UFOs using consciousness. In 1993, Greer founded the Disclosure Project, the goal of which is to publicly disclose the government's alleged knowledge of UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and advanced energy and propulsion systems. Greer describes the Disclosure Project as an effort to grant amnesty to government whistleblowers willing to violate their security oaths by sharing classified information about UFOs. In October 1994, Greer appeared in Larry King 's TV special The UFO Coverup? In May 2001, Greer held
620-552: The analysis showed that reports of UAP sightings were less likely within 30 km of weather stations, 60 km of civilian airports, and in more–densely populated areas, while rural areas tended to have a higher rate of UAP reports. The most consistent and statistically significant finding was that reports of UAP sightings were more likely to occur within 30 km of military operations areas, where routine military training occurs. Although some ufologists (e.g., Peter A. Sturrock ) have proposed explicit methodological activities for
651-625: The escalation of the Cold War and strategic concerns related to the development and detection (e.g., the Ground Observer Corps ) of advanced Soviet aircraft. Official, government-sponsored activities in the United States related to ufology ended in the late 1960s following the Condon Committee report and the termination of Project Blue Book . Government-sponsored, UFO-related activities in other countries, including
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#1732801301344682-461: The extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) hypothesis for UFOs inhibits public understanding of science, dissuades academic inquiry within the physical and social sciences, and undermines progressive space policy initiatives". In 2021, astronomer Avi Loeb launched The Galileo Project which intends to collect and report scientific evidence of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial technology on or near Earth via telescopic observations. In Germany,
713-594: The interesting cases are unreliable. Unfortunately there are no cases that are both reliable and interesting." The ufologists J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée have each developed descriptive systems for characterizing UFO sightings and, by extension, for organizing ufology investigations. In addition to UFO sightings, certain supposedly related phenomena are of interest to some ufologists, including crop circles , cattle mutilations , anomalous materials, alien abductions and implants . Some ufologists have also promoted UFO conspiracy theories , including
744-409: The investigation of UFOs, scientific UFO research is challenged by the facts that the phenomena are spatially and temporally unpredictable, are not reproducible, and lack tangible physicality. That most UFO sightings have mundane explanations limits interpretive power of "interesting," extraordinary UFO-related events, with the astronomer Carl Sagan writing: "The reliable cases are uninteresting and
775-453: The last few years of UFO-related news coverage into a misleading frame, arguing that journalists, pundits and the government are collaborating to build fear in the public that would justify the establishment of a "one-world government" that could wage an "interplanetary war", and notes that "though [Greer's] been summoning [UFOs] from across the galaxy for decades, he can never convince an alien ship to travel an extra couple of miles and hover for
806-821: The observed events, and the development of policy recommendations. These studies include Project Sign , Project Magnet , Project Blue Book , the Robertson Panel , and the Condon Committee in the United States, the Flying Saucer Working Party and Project Condign in Britain, GEIPAN in France, and Project Hessdalen in Norway. Private studies of UFO phenomena include those produced by the RAND Corporation in 1968, Harvey Rutledge of
837-448: The status of ufology as a pseudoscience, with one study suggesting that "any science doubt surrounding unidentified flying objects and aliens was not primarily due to the ignorance of ufologists about science, but rather a product of the respective research practices of and relations between ufology, the sciences, and government investigative bodies". One study suggests that "the rudimentary standard of science communication attending to
868-515: The truth about earthly visits from outer space aliens." The day's events include group gatherings to search for and observe UFOs. Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for Variety magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with Peter Debruge [ de ; ru ] . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for Entertainment Weekly from 1990 until 2014. From 1981 to 1989, he wrote for The Phoenix . Gleiberman
899-498: Was 18. He received a B.S. degree in biology from Appalachian State University in 1982 and an M.D. degree from the James H. Quillen College of Medicine of East Tennessee State University in 1987. He was also trained as a Transcendental Meditation teacher and served as director of a meditation organization. Greer received his Virginia medical license in 1989, worked as an emergency room physician. In 1998 he retired as
930-653: Was born in Lausanne , Switzerland, to Jewish-American parents. He was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan , and is a graduate of the University of Michigan . Gleiberman's work has been published in Premiere and Film Comment , and collected in the film criticism anthology Love and Hisses . Gleiberman reviews movies for NPR and NY1 . He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle . He
961-459: Was directed and written by Michael Mazzola and features Greer, Daniel Sheehan , Jan Harzan , and Russell Targ . Writing in Variety , film critic Owen Gleiberman described the film: "...fantasy propaganda...a conspiracy documentary built around the thesis that the 'national security state' has concealed it from all of us,... [Greer is] like a '70s computer nerd played by John Waters with