Page 4 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

4 UFO Sightings On The Decline

What Is Behind The hungry for amazement, helped by a healthy Sharon Hill, a researcher on the
dose of conspiracy theorising. paranormal and pseudoscience, says: “The ideas
Decline In UFO Sightings? According to the cultural historian about UFOs and aliens continue to evolve as we
Stuart Walton, “Belief in UFOs is definitely in a project our social and cultural ideas on them.

This month, the two major online sites for state of decline, along with much else that could Since we have no single easy explanation for all
reporting UFOs – the National UFO Reporting be classed as paranormal. Part of the reason is these claims regarding the decline in sightings,
that the technology for providing documentary the future vision of ufology seems rather open-
Center and the Mutual UFO Network – both
evidence of such matters is now widely ended. I don't think it's dead, just changing.”
documented steep drops in worldwide sightings.
available to everybody with a smartphone, and
The declines started around 2014, when reports
such purported evidence as there is on YouTube 3 Charged In Powell
were at a peak. They have since reduced
looks extremely threadbare.”
drastically to 55% of that year’s combined total, Broadcasting Break-In Were
He adds: “It isn't so much that belief can
many UFO interest groups have folded, and
numerous previously classified government exist without proof; it's that it must emphatically Looking For 'Paranormal
documents have been disclosed. avoid proof to remain belief. We are in the Activity'
Do these declines reveal that UFO process, paradoxically, of proving a negative
hypothesis with UFOs: there never was any
interest is becoming a blip on the human
such thing.”
cultural radar? Perhaps UFO and alien lore is
Indeed, indisputable evidence of
seeming more like a reflection of human
intelligent life coming to Earth could be the
culture, tied to the space age, motivated by
greatest news of all time. Yet, after thousands of
conquering new existential frontiers.
anecdotal, photo, and video reports have
It might not be a coincidence that the
term UFO (unidentified flying object) and some accrued over decades, what are we to conclude?
of the phenomena that surrounds it – abductions With the greatest balance of scepticism and
“wanting to believe”, all that can confidently be
and impossible technologies – are relatively
asserted is that some objects, appearing in the
recent. Before the 1940s, reports of sightings of
sky on film or video, seem unidentifiable.
objects in the sky were extremely rare.
Furthermore, government disclosure of SIOUX CITY -- Three men have been charged
Centuries of recorded history give no clear
its own video footage isn’t helping to maintain with criminal trespass following a July 31
indication of any such activity. Then, at the
belief. Joseph Baker, sociology professor at incident at the Powell Broadcasting building.
predawn of the space-age, around the time of
Tennessee State University, says: “It’s actually According to a post on the Sioux City
the Roswell conspiracy, UFO culture was born,
giving rise to everything from Space Invaders to better for UFOs when ufologists can claim that Police Department's Facebook page, 23-year-old
The X-Files. ‘the powers that be know everything and are Joshua Gardner, 19-year-old Jeffery Grillet and
hiding it from us’ rather than seeing that the 18-year-old Chance Packard are the three visible
Possible answers as to why sightings are
government appears to have basically the same in security camera footage, holding what appear
decreasing are varied. A key factor, however,
info about UFOs as the public: namely grainy, to be firearms. They were all charged with
may be that more people simply don’t care any
inconclusive visual evidence.” criminal trespass Aug. 8.
more. As we are accustomed to being inundated
Perhaps though, the declines in reported The weapons which they appeared to be
with wild claims churned out by politicians,
sightings may signify only an end to current holding were Airsoft or BB guns, according to
media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO
trends in ufology. After all, from the 1940s the notice. They reportedly went into the
is no more believed than the long-range weather
forecast. aliens were originally characterised as saviours building "on an expedition to find paranormal
Before home video, photographs were who could help humans transcend the cold-war activity."
paranoia of nuclear annihilation; especially SCPD advises readers to use better
the staple of UFO evidence. Video evidence,
marked at the time, after two world wars. But judgement than the men who were arrested.
during the height of the 1990s UFO mania, was
after events like Watergate and the Vietnam war "Please use this as a lesson to stay out of
regarded by many as even more substantial.
fuelled distrust in government, UFOs came to other people's property and use common sense
Amateur footage of glowing objects in the sky,
be viewed more as a possible threat, and some when carrying around items that look like
as mysterious as they seemed real, made the cut
came to believe their existence was verified in firearms. This could easily have been a tragedy,"
for appearing on television – they were meant to
secret military documents. the post read. []
be taken seriously and they fed an audience