Longing for Old Time ET Clarity

by Arman Birnbaum

The UFO universe was simpler then. The truth wasn’t just out there circa 1949-1969, it was also found right down here. Most who took the phenomena seriously knew that UFOs were surely spaceships from other worlds. This modern “ET” paradigm firmly took hold in December 1949, when True magazine published Donald Keyhoe’s sensational article entitled “Flying Saucers are Real.” Keyhoe concluded that spaceships piloted “by living, intelligent observers from another planet” were coming here. And an uneven, generations long struggle soon followed.

Official UFO debunkers assigned to Project Blue Book and their de facto allies—private sector debunkers—challenged advocates who struggled against odds to prove the reality behind the UFO hypothesis. Debunkers won big in 1969, when the Condon Committee Report dismissed UFOs and nearly extinguished further inquiry. UFO organizations and investigators gamely fought on for the next fifty years. They may be on the verge of one of the biggest turn the tables victories in history. But there’s been a multi-generation accretion of added evidence and theories about UFOs.

There are theories that accept tangible, you can tap on the hull UFOs but suggest other than extraterrestrial (albeit equally astounding) points of origin. These include interdimensional craft, flying time-machines crewed by our own odd-looking distant descendants, and super advanced vehicles flown by a hidden and much older civilization sharing this planet with our own unruly 21st century bunch. There are also alternative theories of other, to us intangible places that can nonetheless impact this world by manifesting here as UFOs.

One theory holds that our psychological projections elbow into this reality, taking visible but ultimately illusory form as UFOs and pseudo-extraterrestrials. By another, there are said to be other realities inhabited by tricksters who use a UFO/ET ploy to confound and manipulate humanity. Recently published Skinwalkers at the Pentagon raises the possibility that tangible UFOs and intangible psychic phenomena sometimes merge and that this hasn’t been entirely lost on the Pentagon.

Old school UFO debunking is buckling. Some scientists who aren’t UFO proponents do accept the possibility that they are real and even extraterrestrial. After 70 plus years, the idea of the UFO as ET-crewed spaceship has arrived/landed, but maybe it’s gotten here too late.

Additional scientists may soon accept the ET hypothesis, but most will resist any inconvenient evidence that UFO phenomena might sometimes come packaged with pesky paranormal accessories. Are UFOs just extraterrestrial, or are they extraterrestrial plus? If the latter, what exactly is the plus? New battle lines will be drawn. Next generation debunkers may scientifically accept ET and UFOs but not the magic tricks that seemingly come with them. Watch for new fissures in Ufology. It all leaves one longing for old time ET clarity.

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