Fortean Times

The eye of the beholder

Have you ever seen a UFO? If not, why not – especially if you are interested in these things? That is a question you may never have asked yourself, but I think that you should. It might help us understand what lies behind this baffling phenomenon, because it goes to the heart of what seeing a UFO really means.

My inspiration for this question was the ufologist who first got me interested in the potential relationship between UFOs and science, Jacques Vallée. In one of his many telling insights on the subject, Vallée noted: “Just because a message comes from Heaven doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid.”

A strange thought; but it’s undeniable that we have tended to ‘deify’ the big cases of the UFO mystery and those witnesses who describe the then think them to be extraordinary. Without perception there is no phenomenon. They exist because we say so. We are architects of our own mystery.

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