Archives of the Impossible Conference | Plenary Lecture: Greg Eghigian

Eghigian's research on the history of UFO sightings and alien-contact claims has been funded by NASA, the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

that research has been funded by NASA, the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Eghigian has written a book on the global history of the UFO phenomenon, set to be published the following year, hopefully on World UFO Day.

yes I am in fact and have written a book about the global history of the UFO phenomenon that is set to be published not this year but next year hopefully on World UFO day

Jacques Vallee, in 'Messengers of Deception' (1979) and 'Revelations' (1991), argued that many alien-contact claimants' philosophies were replete with racist and totalitarian values, and that the US government was actively sending observers on 'a wild goose chase' amid a dangerous mythology he said threatened to 'extinguish the light of reason and free inquiry.'

new cults that would extinguish the light of reason and free inquiry and threatened to drive serious research into the quicksands of speculation

Eghigian's central methodological claim is that the UFO phenomenon's history is made not by the sightings themselves but by the social process through which sightings are witnessed, reported, written about, and retold.

UFOs don't make history, people make UFOs make history

Only a small fraction of UFO sighting experiences are ever reported (to police, the Air Force, a UFO group, or the media); an even smaller fraction become written reports, and an even smaller fraction of those become widely circulating cultural 'stories' (e.g. Betty and Barney Hill, Roswell, Rendlesham Forest).

only a fraction get reported... a fraction of these get transformed into widely circulating stories that become part of a canon

In December 2017, revelations about a secret Pentagon program tracking UFO reports became public, followed by Navy videos and pilot eyewitness accounts, after which US intelligence began investigating whether the phenomena behind them were real objects, computer glitches, or malware.

following those revelations in December of 2017... about a secret Pentagon program that was involved in tracking UFO reports, along with... Navy videos, followed then by eyewitness accounts from pilots

US intelligence officials say the objects behind UAP reports are 'real objects' but have debated whether they could be computer glitches or malware rather than genuinely anomalous.

the intelligence people say yeah they're real objects, but are they real, are they computer glitches, could they be the product of malware of some kind

The 2023 shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon lent credence to the idea that UAP-like objects can be real but have a mundane terrestrial (espionage) explanation disguised as scientific research.

the more recent shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon has seemed to lend credence to the idea... they are in fact real, ah but alas they are very terrestrial

The US Air Force in the 1950s-60s flew roughly 20-story-high surveillance balloons over the Soviet Union, publicly described as a 'meteorological survey of the northern hemisphere,' which were sometimes mistaken for flying saucers.

the U.S. Air Force... conducted and carried out the same kinds of charade in the 1950s and the 1960s, portraying its 20-story high surveillance balloons over the Soviet Union as... meteorological survey

A recent article proposed that other civilizations might cloak their presence from outside observers by distorting detectable transit phenomena, and that Earth could similarly hide itself from observation.

the authors here proposed that we on Earth could do this, were we to want to hide or disguise ourselves from others observing us in the universe

World War II caused an estimated 60 million deaths and produced the extraordinary technological research (Enigma machine, V1/V2 rockets, the atomic bomb) that formed the crucial but often-neglected backdrop to the postwar flying saucer phenomenon.

estimates are around 60 million lives lost... especially relevant for the post-war flying saucer phenomenon was its relevance... extraordinary technological research and innovation... during the war

Between 1947 and 1952, multiple men across several countries (including Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy) publicly claimed to have invented flying discs, most commonly claiming to have designed them for Hitler or Mussolini.

all across the world between especially 1947 and 1952 you had a bunch of men... claiming that they were the inventor of these flying discs

A German national held in a Brazilian federal prison for espionage (transcript: 'Yaakov Starzishni') claimed he knew the secret of the flying saucer and offered to reveal it in exchange for his release.

a German National who is being held [in] the federal prison in Brazil for Espionage who said that he knew the secrets to the flying saucer... I will reveal it to you if you let me go

Media outlets at the time reported fairly uncritically on the postwar flying-disc 'inventor' claimants' stories.

media outlets at the time reported on these stories and they did so... fairly uncritically -- they kind of accepted the stories that these people were telling

A neo-Nazi conspiracy theory still circulating today holds that Hitler survived World War II and was headquartered (usually placed in the Himalayas or Antarctica) with scientific advisors, building flying saucers as reconnaissance craft in preparation for a coming World War III.

Hitler never died... he was headquartered either usually in the Himalayas or in Antarctica with his trusted scientific advisors... reconnaissance vehicles in preparation for World War III

Donald Keyhoe and Frank Scully both published influential UFO books in 1950 that established the two foundational tropes of UFO discourse: that the government knows UFOs are extraterrestrial and is lying about it, and that a disclosure campaign is needed to force authorities to admit what they know.

they set in motion two basic ideas: one, that the government knows these are actually aliens and they're lying about it; two, a campaign needs to be started to get authorities to come clean

Keyhoe's 1950 book became so popular that it was serialized in periodicals, newspapers and magazines worldwide, spreading his arguments quickly and globally.

his book is so popular that you can trace its impact throughout the world because it gets serialized in periodicals in newspapers and magazines throughout the world

Unlike other paranormal phenomena such as Bigfoot, Loch Ness, or ghosts, the UFO phenomenon has direct historical ties to government, national security and military authority, which helps explain why it attracts conspiracy-theory thinking.

stories about Bigfoot or Loch Ness, stories about ghosts don't tend to do that... this is what's made it so easy... for people... to adopt the language of threat and... conspiracy

Frenchman Aime Michel, one of the most influential UFO researchers of the 1950s-60s, claimed to find a pattern of UFO sightings aligning in straight-line flight paths, which he read as evidence the objects were piloted with intention.

one of the most influential figures in this regard... was the Frenchman Aime Michel, who thought he found a pattern in the flight patterns... evidence of these objects actually moving in straight lines

Psychologist David Saunders began, in the 1970s, coding UFO sightings so the data could be entered and analyzed by computer -- a quantification approach Eghigian says continues today in government and civilian UAP analysis.

psychologist David Saunders, who were then already seeking to code sightings so that information could be entered then analyzed using computers

Beginning in the early 1950s, 'contactees' came forward claiming direct encounters with benevolent extraterrestrials (usually said to be from within our own solar system) who warned that Earth was endangered by atomic warfare and offered to help humanity.

Earth is in danger because of the threat of atomic warfare and atomic energy, and we're here to help you, we're here to save you from yourselves

Edgar Sievers (transcript: 'Edgar Zifer'), author of the 1955 German book on flying saucers over Africa, was reportedly Carl Jung's favorite UFO-contactee-era author.

even believers like Edgar Zifer here from 1955, Flying Saucer Uber Africa, he was actually Carl Jung's favorite author

In the late 1950s to mid-1960s, well before the 1980s-90s abduction-phenomenon heyday, ufologist Coral Lorenzen tracked a shift toward more hostile alien encounters and, with colleagues, suspected it signaled an impending invasion/colonization of Earth.

what she starts to suspect, along with some of her colleagues, is... an impending invasion -- we are about to be colonized

Psychologist Leo Sprinkle (University of Wyoming) had been working with alleged experiencers/contactees since at least the mid-1960s, predating John Mack, and personally told Eghigian (before Sprinkle's death) that he and Mack shared a similar therapist-informed outlook, distinct from Bud Hopkins' approach.

I had the privilege of having conversations with Leo Sprinkle before he passed away, and he agreed that he and Mack really shared a similar point of view

John Mack, a psychiatrist whose papers are held at Rice's Archives of the Impossible, worked with alleged alien-abduction experiencers using a trauma-informed therapeutic framework combined with an appreciation for the spiritual dimensions of the experience, telling them they would emerge fundamentally changed for the better.

you might be terrified, you may well have been victimized, but you're going to come out of this fundamentally changed -- for the better

The Frisbee originated from Fred Morrison's 'Flying Saucer' (which he also called the 'Pluto Platter'), first distributed around 1948, later manufactured and marketed by the Wham-O corporation, which renamed it the Frisbee.

that's Fred Morrison, the inventor of what he called the Flying Saucer -- he liked to call it the Pluto Platter -- the Wham-O corporation takes it up and turns it into the Frisbee

Over the 75-plus-year history of the flying saucer era, self-appointed UFO 'experts' have followed a consistent, repeating pattern: appear as a heroic whistleblower, accuse government/academia of silence and dismissiveness, call for a truth-exposing media campaign, and must keep the campaign going indefinitely to retain their status.

the expert assumes the role of being a heroic whistleblower, they call out the authorities... on their silence and dismissive attitudes... the campaign never can stop

George Hansen's book 'The Trickster and the Paranormal' has become a canonical work applying the folkloric trickster archetype to the study of UFO/paranormal hoaxing.

his book, the Trickster in the Paranormal, has become something of a canonical classic... in paranormal studies

One of the earliest English-language references to pranking by dressing in a white sheet to impersonate a ghost dates to 1584 in England; the practice sometimes had serious consequences, with prank victims occasionally beaten badly enough to require hospitalization.

one of the earliest references to it dates in English language at least go back to 1584 in England... several people were beaten so badly they had to be taken to the hospital

In 2009, two men released a balloon rigged with a flare attached, stating their motive was to show how unreliable eyewitness accounts and UFO investigators are.

the two gentlemen who released the balloon in 2009 with a flare... to quote show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are along with investigators of UFOs

Shortly after 1947, advertisers used 'flying saucer' publicity stunts (Ballyhoo/stunt marketing), including a 'flying saucers over Chicago' story that turned out to be reflections off the shiny paint of a new automobile being advertised.

you read something like flying saucers over Chicago, and then you find out it's because this new auto paint is so shiny it reflects into the air

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a person disconnected from reason was said to be 'alienated from reason,' and the medical specialist who treated such 'insanity' was called an 'alienist' -- a term historically distinct from, but etymologically entangled with, the 'alien' of UFO discourse.

a person was said to be alienated from reason... a specialist assigned to treat this kind of insanity was frequently referred to as an alienist

French psychiatrist Georges Heuyer (transcript: 'George Hoyer') was, according to Eghigian, probably the first to describe a 'flying saucer psychosis' among UFO witnesses/claimants in the 1950s.

the French psychiatrist George Hoyer was probably the first among the people to talk about their being what he called a flying saucer psychosis

New York-based psychiatrist Jost/Joost Meerloo (transcript: 'Yost Merlu'), in the 1960s, described a 'flying saucer syndrome' he believed could affect people suffering from severe anxiety.

the New York-based psychiatrist Yost Merlu, who spoke of what he called a flying saucer syndrome that he believed could affect... people who suffered from severe anxiety

The rise, from 1980 onward, of abduction investigators using 'trauma' to validate experiencers' accounts is not coincidental to the 1980 publication of the DSM's first official recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

it's not at all a coincidence that all of this takes off and takes shape following, in 1980, the publication of the diagnostic and statistical manual... official recognition of... post-traumatic stress disorder

In 1968, astronomer J. Allen Hynek and physicist James McDonald argued UFOs merited serious scientific study, while physicist Lewis Branscomb, in a 1968 publication (possibly Science), wrote that the public fails to understand that the evidentiary threshold for distinguishing truth from falsehood must be set above the ordinary 'noise' of everyday experience.

the mental discriminator for distinguishing evidence from mystery and truth from falsehood must be set at a level above the random noise of experience

From around 1970 onward, experimental psychologists who had studied conformity, obedience, bias and peer pressure for decades concluded that UFO/abduction reports show neither evidence of extraterrestrial visitors nor of individual psychopathology, but rather ordinary, universal psychological shortcomings.

what they see going on are examples of nothing more than our inherent psychological shortcomings as human beings, something that affects all of us

By the 1990s media peak of the alien-abduction phenomenon, the strongest critics of figures like John Mack, Bud Hopkins and David Jacobs were not psychiatrists but experimental psychologists, who argued experiencers were affected by mundane psychological/social influences rather than alien intervention.

the people who are really raising questions about John Mack, Bud Hopkins, David Jacobs... was not psychiatrists, it's psychologists, it's experimental psychologists