Summary

Unexplained phenomena seen in the sky are a source of impressions that range from fear, awe, inspiration, and wonder. They’ve inspired interpretations as varied as lost souls from purgatory, armor-like flying shields, to contemporary belief in extraterrestrials (aliens) and their spaceships (Unidentified Flying Objects [UFOs]). It has been argued that the belief in UFOs corresponds to the Cold War and Space Race era of US history (1945–1991), but a review of sources indicates that beliefs that other planets are populated by nonhuman intelligent beings are found in written sources of the Western tradition since ancient Greece and earlier as attested to by the oral traditions of many indigenous cultures. Beliefs that nonhuman intelligences populate other dimensions and establish communication with human beings is also found in ancient and contemporary religious and esoteric traditions. These testimonies form core tenets of various cosmologies that range from those found within Hopi culture, esoteric movements like Rosicrucianism, and modern religious movements such as The Nation of Islam. The contemporary belief in UFOs and aliens in the United States has taken on uniquely distinct characteristics. Mass media in the 20th century circulated tropes of the alien invasion to a global audience, while the beginning of the Space Race resulted in manufactured aerial objects in the skies like satellites and spacecraft debris. The UFO hoax emerged as an interpretive lens through which UFOs were staged as simultaneously objects of belief and disbelief, one consequence of which was to destabilize conventional systematic methods of research into the phenomena. These developments, combined with the revelation that the US Air Force actively managed the public perception of UFOs through programs like Project Blue Book, contributed to a modern narrative that UFOs exist and that some governments know this and are keeping this information from the public. Although most of the UFOs analyzed were found to be of terrestrial origin, some remain legitimately unknown. In June 2021, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an unclassified report of its findings. The group charged with compiling the report changed the name of the phenomena from UFOs to UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) to account for vehicular presence through transmedia phenomena such as water, air, space, or other mediums. Revelations about classified studies provoked the modern Disclosure movement, the goal of which is to prompt the US government to release information about its research programs. With the US government declaring that it studies UFOs, academics have also begun the public study without fear of stigma, augmenting the already advanced study of the topic by a parallel research tradition that consists of researchers who have had to use clandestine means to study and publish their research due to the stigma and classification associated with the topic.