Reddit reviews UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973

This thread represents the core conflation of UFO studies.

Linked here and voted up are some excellent cases of stubborn Unknowns that refuse easy explanation. I also upvoted riskbusinesscdc's list because it contains some of the most evocative Unknowns. Data of the damned, as Charles Fort would put it.

These Unknowns on their own have little to zero specific data that "supports the ET hypothesis". Indeed, the single best bit of real data supporting the ET hypothesis from this thread is the fact that many of these UFOs have flown upward at fantastic speed. Note that by this logic, we should also be entertaining the Deep Sea Hypothesis in light of the great mass of ocean-related UFO cases: if UFOs are flying in and out of the ocean, then they must be from there right?

The ET hypothesis is one potential explanation for this data. Here are the appealing things in favor of the ET hypothesis that actually hold up to rigorous examination (aka no starbabies):

• It solves Fermi's Paradox
  
• It explains SETI's "eerie silence"
  
• It was seriously entertained by many of the original investigators in the early days. The key references here are the 1947 Twining Memo and Ruppelt's 1956 book The Report On Unidentified Flying Objects, where Ruppelt says:
  >[In 1947] ATIC's intelligence specialists were confident that within a few months or a year they would have the answer to the question, "What are UFO's?" The question, "Do UFO's exist?" was never mentioned. The only problem that confronted the people at ATIC was, "Were the UFO's of Russian or interplanetary origin?" Either case called for a serious, secrecy shrouded project.
  
• The correlation in time between the first atomic blasts and the 1947 wave that kicked off the modern era of saucer reports is explained by the ET hypothesis. The logic goes that all interplanetary/stellar/galactic/dimensional civilizations will be familiar with the nuclear forces because that's how stars work. Therefore our rash of nuclear explosions would constitute some of the most easily-observable and important steps in earth's technological history.
  
• The higher rate of Unknown cases when reported over highly sensitive facilities like Los Alamos, White Sands, various USAFB and missile silos also gels well with the hypothesis that some UFO reports represent some sort of ET scouting apparatus. Refs here include the 1952 FBI Chadwell memo.
  
• It explains the "data gathering" behavior observed by many civilian witnesses. A good example of this are the little men seen all over France in September and October of 1954, generally picking flowers from gardens and other vegetation. Richard Dolan goes over this "wave" in detail. Note that all scientists who have looked at the UFO phenomenon agree that witness testimony is the weakest possible data to base your argument on. It is also the most unequivicobale data when it comes to supporting the ET hypothesis, for example Howard Menger saying he met people from Venus. Even Donald Keyhoe thought Menger was bunk.
  
• Many alleged contactees and abductees give testimony in support of the ET hypothesis. There has been some very interesting statistical analysis done on abductees by Mcgill University human visual perception scientist Don Donderi and he has some good content available on iTunesU as well as streaming online.
  
  I also think it would be useful for us to have a list of alternative hypothesis and references to them. Here's how I'd summarize the options of sources for the best of the best Unknown UFOs:
  
  
• Extra terrestrial intelligences
  
• Inter-dimensional intelligences
  
• Unknown terrestrial intelligences (Russian American or German breakaway human civilization, secret empires in Antarctica, lizards from the center of the hollow earth, who knows maybe it's the dolphins and mice like Douglas Adams said)
  
• Esoteric-other (aka spirits, angels, gods, djinns or whathaveyou)
  
• Human consciousness. Jung explored this idea in terms of his notions of the collective unconscious, but Nick Pope has put it well when he speculates that the UFO reports could be some unknown process of human consciousness. Given our understanding of quantum mechanics, wave functions and the role of the observer, it's possible that our minds are able to generate physical phenomena that we do not understand. It could present itself to a person based on their beliefs. So maybe a religious person would see the Virgin Mary, a sci-fi fan will see Martians, Bjork would see a sprite of the woods, Hamlet will see his father's ghost, etc.
  
• The Hubris Hypothesis. This is the idea, first put forward by the USAF, that all Unknown cases can be attributed to misidentification of known objects, hoaxes and hallucinations and human hubris. I want to believe.
  
  TL,DR
  
  UFOs are data. The ET hypothesis is one attempt to explain that data.

I've read Kean's book but I also I picked up Richard Dolan's UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973 per your suggestion a few months ago. I have to say, Dolan's book is definitely more in depth and connects the dots much more thoroughly, but it's aim is entirely different.

Kean's book is great, no doubt, but it's more of a UFOs for beginners, IMO. In a way, I think it's exactly the type of material many people needed to read in order to give the subject some credence.

Richard Dolan's books: https://www.amazon.com/UFOs-National-Security-State-Chronology/dp/1571743170

Richard M. Dolan: UFOs and the National Security State.

The sheer amount of documented information in this book is amazing. It's a great history of the UFO/government involvement topic. There's a second volume too.

If you are curious about the abduction phenomenon, check out Dr. John Mack's book 'Abduction'. Mack was a professor at Harvard and specialized in abnormal and child psychology for 40 years before beginning his studies of abductees. They actually tried to run him out of there for it, too. Even if you don't believe this is about aliens this book will blow your mind. He destroys the myth that these are mostly attention-seeking or fantasy-prone people and details how most people who come forward with their experiences actually instead lose their jobs, their spouses and their sanity over it. He also details how widespread it is in the world, with different and even very isolated cultures experiencing and describing the same beings, instruments and procedures.

C.D.B. Bryan's Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: The Lectures at M.I.T. is another good one about abduction. It was written by a Yale-educated journalist and writer who didn't initially believe, but left pretty freaked out after interviewing people there. This book freaked me out the most. Again, when you start to look closely at the specific people who claim this stuff you start to realize that the majority of them are dead-serious and scared shitless about their experiences, not looking for attention.

That looks pretty good! Coincidentally, the foreward to that book is written by...John Podesta. lol I'll have to check that out when I'm done with the book I'm on now. I'm reading this, which is pretty good so far:

http://www.amazon.com/UFOs-National-Security-State-Chronology/dp/1571743170/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457122674&sr=8-2&keywords=richard+dolan

Richard Dolan takes a historian's perspective which makes for a great summary of the history of the field with a strong emphasis on only the most credible or critical events.

UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973

UFOs and the National Security State: The Coverup Exposed, 1973-1991

The field is overflowing with crackpots, flakes, religious lunatics and the odd reasonable person.
Look at the most credible sources first: Dr. John Mack, Gordon Cooper, Dr. David M. Jacobs, Timothy Good. Find the Russian documentary film "Men in Black" - NOT the American fable with Will Smith.
Then read some books by David M. Jacobs, Budd Hopkins, Timothy Good, Jacques Valle, Richard Dolan.

Books:
http://amzn.to/29G6xZP - UFOs & The National Security State - Richard Dolan
Earth, An Alien Enterprise - Timothy Good: http://amzn.to/29KQv0E
Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity - Dr. David M. Jacobs
http://amzn.to/29KQD03

If you mean "real" UAP's as in extraterrestrial I don't really know. I never had any sightings or experiences myself so i couldn't in good conscience attribute anything iv'e seen online as being proven extraterrestrial however strange or bizarre it may be. The phenomenon intrigues me though.

I'm reading Richard Dolan's book UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Coverup, 1941-1973. The first of I think three books(?) detailing the chronology of the UFO-phenomenon and the response to it by the United States growing intelligence apparatus. It makes a very solid case that the American government (and others) is/was very interested in UFO's while maintaining the public notion they weren't. It's fascinating!

If you just want to see some strange footage of UAP's i'd watch Australien skies on Netflix. The docu follows Damien Nott who claims to have experienced and filmed sightings since he was a child. He is very "matter of fact" about it and shows many of his captured sightings with both UAP's and black helicopters. Besides the sometimes cheesy editing effects this docu pretty much just lays it out there and presents Damien and his footage as is. I don't know what to make of it, Damien seems sincere and the footage is sometimes as strange as the one we where talking about before. Maybe you see something you recognize yourself?