Despite their safety and effectiveness in treating ADHD symptoms, the use of methylphenidate and other stimulant medications is frequently a topic of public controversy.
Despite the scientifically well-established nature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), its diagnosis, and its treatment, each of these has been controversial since the 1970s.
The controversies involve clinicians, teachers, policymakers, parents,
and the media. Positions range from the view that ADHD is within the
normal range of behavior to the hypothesis that ADHD is a genetic
condition. Other areas of controversy include the use of stimulant
medications in children, the method of diagnosis, and the possibility of
overdiagnosis.
In 2009, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, while
acknowledging the controversy, stated that the current treatments and
methods of diagnosis are based on the dominant view of the academic
literature.
With differing rates of diagnosis across countries, states within
countries, races, and ethnicities, some suspect factors other than the
presence of the symptoms of ADHD are playing a role in diagnosis, although the prevalence of ADHD is consistent internationally. Some sociologists consider ADHD to be an example of the medicalization of deviant behavior, that is, turning the previously non-medical issue of school performance into a medical one. Most healthcare providers accept ADHD as a genuine disorder, at least in the small number of people with severe symptoms.
Among healthcare providers the debate mainly centers on diagnosis and
treatment in the much greater number of people with mild symptoms.
Status as a disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the leading authority in the US on clinical diagnosis, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a prevalence rate in most cultures of about 5% in children and 2.5% in adults. Today, the existence of ADHD is widely accepted, but controversy around the disorder has existed since at least the 1970s. According to the DSM-5, symptoms must be present before age 12, but it is not uncommon for ADHD to continue into adulthood.
Parents and educators sometimes still question a perceived
over-diagnosis in children due to overlapping symptoms with other mental
disabilities, and the effectiveness of treatment options, especially
the overprescription of stimulant medications. However, according to sociology professor Vincent Parrillo,
"Parent and consumer groups, such as CHADD (Children and Adults with
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), tend to support the medical
perspective of ADHD."
In 2009, the British Psychological Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, in collaboration with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), released a set of diagnosis and treatment guidelines for ADHD.
These guidelines reviewed studies by Ford et al. that found that 3.6
percent of boys and 0.85 percent of girls in Britain qualified for a
diagnosis of ADHD using the American DSM-IV criteria. The guidelines go on to state that the prevalence drops to 1.5% when using the stricter criteria for the ICD-10 diagnosis of hyperkinetic disorder, used mainly in Europe.
A systematic review of the literature in 2007 found that the
worldwide prevalence of ADHD was 5.29 percent, and that there were no
significant differences in prevalence rates between North America and
Europe. The review did find differences between prevalence rates in
North America and those in Africa and the Middle East, but cautioned
that this may be due to the small number of studies available from those
regions.
The pathogenesis of ADHD is not wholly clear,
however a large body of scientific evidence supports that it is caused
by a complex mixture of genetic, pre-natal and early post-natal
environmental factors.
ADHD as a biological difference
Large, high quality research has found small differences in the brain between ADHD and non-ADHD patients. Jonathan Leo
and David Cohen, critics who reject the characterization of ADHD as a
disorder, contended in 2003 and 2004 that the controls for stimulant
medication usage were inadequate in some lobar volumetric studies, which
makes it impossible to determine whether ADHD itself or psychotropic medication used to treat ADHD is responsible for decreased thickness observed in certain brain regions.
They believe many neuroimaging studies are oversimplified in both
popular and scientific discourse and given undue weight despite
deficiencies in experimental methodology. Many studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated differences in multiple aspects of brain structure and function.
ADHD is highly heritable: twin studies suggest that genetics explain 70 to 80 percent of the variation of ADHD.
There is also strong evidence to support genetic-environment
interactions with some fetal and early post-natal environmental factors. However, some have questioned whether a genetic connection exists as no single gene has been found – this is known as the missing heritability problem, which ADHD shares with many other heritable human traits such as schizophrenia.
In 2000, Dr. Joseph Glenmullen stated that "no claim of a gene for a
psychiatric condition has stood the test of time, in spite of popular
misinformation. Although many theories exist, there is no definitive
biological, neurological, or genetic etiology for 'mental illness'." Authors of a review of ADHD etiology in 2004 noted: "Although several genome-wide searches
have identified chromosomal regions that are predicted to contain genes
that contribute to ADHD susceptibility, to date no single gene with a
major contribution to ADHD has been identified." However, several large studies and reviews provide strong support that ADHD is polygenic
in most cases, caused by a complex interaction between multiple genes –
there is no single gene which would cause the majority of ADHD cases.
Social construct theory
Some
social constructionist theories of ADHD reject the dominant medical
consensus that ADHD has a distinct pathophysiology and genetic
components. The symptoms of ADHD also happen to be morally questionable
attributes, this is why the symptoms are described as inappropriate.
Many social constructionists trenchantly question deterministic views of
behaviour, such as those views sometimes put forth within
behavioural/abnormal psychology and the biological sciences. Concerns
have been raised over the threshold at which symptoms are pathologized,
and how strongly social constructs surrounding the symptoms and diagnosis of ADHD may differ between cultures. The social construction theory of ADHD argues that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is not necessarily an actual pathology, but that an ADHD diagnosis is a socially constructed explanation to describe behaviors that simply do not meet prescribed social norms.
Some proponents of the social construct theory of ADHD seem to
regard the disorder as genuine, though over-diagnosed in some cultures.
These proponents cite as evidence that the DSM IV,
favored in the United States for defining and diagnosing mental
illness, arrives at levels of ADHD three to four times higher than
criteria in the ICD 10, the diagnostic guide favored by the World Health Organization. A popular proponent of this theory, Thomas Szasz, has argued that ADHD was "invented and not discovered."
Psychiatrists Peter Breggin and Sami Timimi oppose pathologizing the symptoms of ADHD. Sami Timimi, who is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with the NHS, argues that ADHD is not an objective disorder
but that western society creates stress on families which in turn
suggests environmental causes for children expressing the symptoms of
ADHD. They also believe that parents who feel they have failed in their parenting responsibilities can use the ADHD label to absolve guilt and self-blame. Timimi's view has been heavily criticized by Russell Barkley, a strong proponent of ADHD as an independent pathology and of medicating children for ADHD symptoms.
A common argument against the medical model of ADHD asserts that,
while the traits that define ADHD exist and may be measurable, they lie
within the spectrum of normal healthy human behaviour and are not
dysfunctional.
As Thomas Szasz puts it, everyone has problems and difficulties that
should be categorized as "problems of living", not mental illnesses or
diseases.
However, by definition, in order to diagnose with a mental disorder,
symptoms must be interpreted as causing a person distress or be
especially maladaptive.
In the United States, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV)
requires that "some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or
more settings" and that "there must be clear evidence of significant
impairment in social, school, or work functioning" for a diagnosis of
ADHD to be made.
In this view, in societies where passivity and order are highly
valued, those on the active end of the active-passive spectrum may be
seen as problems. Medically defining their behaviour (through medical
labels such as ADHD) serves the purpose of removing blame from those
causing the problem. However, strict social constructions views are
controversial, due to a number of studies that cite significant
psychological and social differences between those diagnosed with the
disorder, and those who are not. The specific reasons for these
differences are not certain, and this does not suggest anything other
than a difference in behavior. Studies have also shown neurological
differences, but whether this signifies an effect rather than a cause
is unknown. Such differences could also be attributed the drugs commonly
prescribed to people with this disorder. Studies have also been able to
differentiate ADHD from other psychiatric disorders in its symptoms,
associated features, life course, and comorbidity.
Gerald Coles, an educational psychologist and formerly an associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
and the University of Rochester who has written extensively on literacy
and learning disabilities, asserts that there are partisan agendas
behind the educational policy-makers and that the scientific research
that they use to support their arguments regarding the teaching of
literacy are flawed. These include the idea that there are neurological
explanations for learning disabilities. Gerald Coles argues that school
failure must be viewed and treated in the context of both the learning
environment and the child's individual abilities, behavior, family life,
and social relationships. He then presents a new model of learning
problems, in which family and school environments are the major
determinants of academic success. In this interactive paradigm, the
attitudes and methods of education are more important than inherent
strengths or deficits of the individual child.
Diagnosis
Methods of diagnosis
Since
the early 2000s, research on the functioning of the brain has been
conducted to help support the idea that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder is an executive dysfunction issue.
The brains of males and females are showing differences, which could
potentially help explain why ADHD presents differently in boys and
girls. The current method of diagnosis made is using the DSM-5, along with a possible physical and visual examination.
Over- and under-diagnosis
Overdiagnosis
typically refers to the phenomenon of children without ADHD being
systematically erroneously diagnosed with ADHD. These instances are
termed as false positives. However, the "presence of false
positives alone does not indicate overdiagnosis". There may be evidence
of overdiagnosis if inaccuracies are shown consistently in the accepted
prevalence rates or in the diagnostic process itself. "For ADHD to be
overdiagnosed, the rate of false positives (i.e., children
inappropriately diagnosed with ADHD) must substantially exceed the
number of false negatives (children with ADHD who are not identified or
diagnosed)."
Children aged 8 to 15 years living in the community indicated an ADHD
prevalence rate of 7.8%. However, only 48% of the ADHD sample had
received any mental health care over the past 12 months.
Evidence also exists of possible differences of race and
ethnicity in the prevalence of ADHD. Some believe this may be due to
different perceptions of what qualifies as disruptive behavior,
inattention and hyperactivity.
It is argued that over-diagnosis occurs more in well-off or more
homogeneous communities, whereas under-diagnosis occurs more frequently
in poorer and minority communities due to lack of resources and lack of
financial access. Those without health insurance are less likely to be
diagnosed with ADHD. It is further believed that the "distribution of
ADHD diagnosis falls along socioeconomic lines", according to the amount
of wealth within a neighborhood. Therefore, the difficulty of applying
national, general guidelines to localized and specific contexts, such as
where referral is unavailable, resources are lacking or the patient is
uninsured, may assist in the establishment of a misdiagnosis of ADHD.
Development can also influence perception of relevant ADHD
symptoms. ADHD is viewed as a chronic disorder that develops in
childhood and continues into adulthood. However, some research shows a
decline in the symptoms of ADHD as children grow up and mature into
adulthood. As children move into the stage of adolescence, the most
common reporters of ADHD symptoms, parents and teachers, tend to focus
on behaviors affecting academic performance. Some research has shown
that the primary symptoms of ADHD were strong discriminators in parent
ratings, but differed for specific age groups. Hyperactivity was a
stronger discriminator of ADHD in children, while inattentiveness was a
stronger discriminator in adolescents.
Issues with comorbidity are another possible explanation in favor
of the argument of overdiagnosis. As many as 75% of diagnosed children
with ADHD meet criteria for some other psychiatric diagnosis. Among children diagnosed with ADHD, about 25% to 30% have anxiety disorders, 9% to 32% have depression, 45% to 84% have oppositional defiant disorder, and 44% to 55% of adolescents have conduct disorder. Learning disorders are found in 20% to 40% of children with ADHD.
Another possible explanation of over-diagnosis of ADHD is the
"relative-age effect", which applies to children of both sexes. Younger
children are more likely to be inappropriately diagnosed with ADHD and
treated with prescription medication than their older peers in the same
grade. Children who are almost a year younger tend to appear more
immature than their classmates, which influences both their academic and
athletic performance.
The debate of underdiagnosis, or giving a "false negative", has
also been discussed, specifically in literature concerning ADHD among
adults, girls and underprivileged communities. It is estimated that in
the adult population, rates of ADHD are somewhere between 4% and 6%. However, as little as 11% of these adults with ADHD actually receive assessment, much less any form of treatment.
Between 30% and 70% of children with ADHD report at least one impairing
symptom of ADHD in adulthood, and 30% to 50% still meet the diagnostic
criteria for ADHD.
Research on gender differences also reveals an argument for
underdiagnosis of ADHD among girls. The ratio for male-to-female is 4:1
with 92% of girls with ADHD receiving a primarily inattentive subtype
diagnosis.
This difference in gender can be explained, for the majority, by the
different ways boys and girls express symptoms of this particular
disorder. Typically, females with ADHD exhibit less disruptive behaviors and more internalizing behaviors.
Girls tend to show fewer behavioral problems, show fewer aggressive
behaviors, are less impulsive, and are less hyperactive than boys
diagnosed with ADHD. These patterns of behavior are less likely to
disrupt the classroom or home setting, therefore allowing parents and
teachers to easily overlook or neglect the presence of a potential
problem.
The current diagnostic criteria appear to be more geared towards
symptoms more common in males than in females, and the ADHD
characteristics of men have been over-represented. This leaves many
women and girls with ADHD neglected.
As stated previously, underdiagnosis is also believed to be seen
in more underprivileged communities. These communities tend to be poorer
and inhabit more minorities. More than 50% of children with mental
health needs do not receive assessment or treatment. Access to mental
health services and resources differs on a wide range of factors, such
as "gender, age, race or ethnicity and health insurance". Therefore,
children deserving of an ADHD diagnosis may never receive this
confirmation and are not identified or represented in prevalence rates.
In 2005, 82 percent of teachers in the United States considered
ADHD to be over diagnosed while three percent considered it to be under
diagnosed. In China 19 percent of teachers considered ADHD to be over
diagnosed while 57 percent considered it to be under diagnosed.
The British Psychological Society
said in a 1997 report that physicians and psychiatrists should not
follow the American example of applying medical labels to such a wide
variety of attention-related disorders: "The idea that children who
don't attend or who don't sit still in school have a mental disorder is
not entertained by most British clinicians." The NICE, in collaboration with others, release guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. An update was last published in 2019.
There have been notable differences in the diagnosis patterns of
birthdays in school-age children. Those born relatively younger to the
school starting age than others in a classroom environment are shown to
be more likely diagnosed with ADHD. Boys who were born in December in
which the school age cut-off was December 31 were shown to be 30% more
likely to be diagnosed and 41% to be treated than others born in
January. Girls born in December had a diagnosis percentage of 70% and
77% treatment more than ones born the following month. Children who were
born at the last 3 days of a calendar year were reported to have
significantly higher levels of diagnosis and treatment for ADHD than
children born at the first 3 days of a calendar year. The studies
suggest that ADHD diagnosis is prone to subjective analysis.
Treatment
ADHD management recommendations vary by country and usually involves some combination of counseling, lifestyle changes, and medications.
The British guideline only recommends medications as a first-line
treatment in children who have severe symptoms and for them to be
considered in those with moderate symptoms who either refuse or fail to
improve with counseling.
Canadian and American guidelines recommend that medications and
behavioral therapy be used together as a first-line therapy, except in
preschool-aged children.
Stimulants
The National Institute of Mental Health recommends stimulants for the treatment of ADHD, and states that, "under medical supervision, stimulant medications are considered safe".
A 2007 drug class review found no evidence of any differences in
efficacy or side effects in the stimulants commonly prescribed.
Methylphenidate and amphetamine are the most common stimulants
used for treating ADHD. Studies have shown that providing low doses of
methylphenidate and amphetamine improves individuals' executive
functioning and focus attention. Individuals with ADHD have a weaker prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the target of the stimulants as it is what regulates individuals attention and behavior. The stimulants have shown to increase the levels of norepinephrine and dopamine that are released into the prefrontal cortex. Stimulants are often used multiple times a day and/or in combination with other treatments.
Methylphenidate is commonly used for treating ADHD, narcolepsy, and for cognitive enhancement.
It was first created by chemist Leandro Panizzon in 1944 and later
patented in 1954 by a Swiss pharmaceutical company known as Ciba. Methylphenidate was first introduced into the market as Ritalin in the 1950s.
Methylphenidate gradually gained attention for its effects in treating
narcolepsy. The use of methylphenidate expanded in the 1960s when it was
discovered to be effective in treating hyperkinetic disorder, now known
as ADHD.
Between 1993 and 2003 the worldwide use of medications that treat ADHD increased almost threefold. Most ADHD medications are prescribed in the United States.
In the 1990s, the US accounted for 90% of global use of stimulants such
as methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine. Although in the 2000s, trends
and patterns in data show that there was a rise in the percentage of
drug usage in other countries worldwide. Prevalence and incidence rates
of the use of stimulants increased at a high rate worldwide after 1995
and continued to rise at a lower rate until it plateaued in 2008. The
global usage of stimulants was rising at rates related to the high
percentage used originally in the US. Many other countries began to see
more prescriptions for stimulants as well as more usage of prescription
stimulants such as methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine among children
and adults.
From 1994-2000 as many as 10 countries saw a dramatic 12% increase in
the use of stimulants. Australia and New Zealand became the third
highest users of stimulants after the United States and Canada
respectively.
By 2015 countries such as the UK saw a rise of stimulant prescriptions
by 800%. The time period with the highest rise in percentage being from
1995-2003.
Dextroamphetamine is an extremely powerful stimulant, commonly
used to treat sleep disorders and ADHD. The medicine can be taken with
or without food, and it is available in three different forms, Oral
tablet, Oral extended-release capsule, and oral solutions. However, you
cannot buy this medicine without a doctor's prescription.
In 2003, doctors in the UK were prescribing about a 10th of the
amount per capita of methylphenidate used in the US, while France and
Italy accounted for approximately one twentieth of US stimulant
consumption. However, the 2006 World Drug Report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicated the US constituted merely 17% of the world market for dextroamphetamine. They assert that in the early 2000s amphetamine use was "widespread in Europe."
In 1999, a study constructed with 1,285 children and their
parents across four U.S. communities has shown 12.5% of children that
met ADHD criteria had been treated with stimulants during the previous
12 months.
In May 2000, the testimony of DEA Deputy Director Terrance Woodworth has
shown that the Ritalin quota increased from 1,768 kg in 1990 to
14,957 kg in 2000. In addition, IMS Health also revealed the number of
Adderall prescriptions have increased from 1.3 million in 1996 to nearly
6 million in 1999.
Adverse effects
Some parents and professionals have raised questions about the side effects of drugs and their long-term use. Magnetic resonance imaging
studies suggest that long-term treatment with amphetamine or
methylphenidate decreases abnormalities in brain structure and function
found in subjects with ADHD, and improves function of the right caudate nucleus. On February 9, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted to recommend a "black-box" warning describing the cardiovascular risks of stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD.
Subsequently, the USFDA commissioned studies which found that, in
children, young adults, and adults, there is no association between
serious adverse cardiovascular events (sudden death, myocardial infarction, and stroke) and the medical use of amphetamine or other ADHD stimulants.
The effects of amphetamine and methylphenidate on gene regulation are both dose- and route-dependent.
Most of the research on gene regulation and addiction is based upon
animal studies with intravenous amphetamine administration at very high
doses.
The few studies that have used equivalent (weight-adjusted) human
therapeutic doses and oral administration show that these changes, if
they occur, are relatively minor.
The long-term effects on the developing brain and on mental health
disorders in later life of chronic use of methylphenidate is unknown.
Despite this, between 0.51% to 1.23% of children between the ages of 2
and 6 years take stimulants in the US. Stimulant drugs are not approved
for this age group.
In individuals who experience sub-normal height and weight gains
during stimulant therapy, a rebound to normal levels is expected to
occur if stimulant therapy is briefly interrupted. The average reduction in final adult height from continuous stimulant therapy over a 3-year period is 2 cm. Amphetamines doubles the risk of psychosis compared to methylphenidate in ADHD patients.
Effectiveness
The
use of stimulant medication for treatment of attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is well-researched and considered one of
the most effective treatments in psychiatry.
A 2015 study examined the long-term effects of stimulant medication for
ADHD, and reported that stimulants are a highly effective treatment for
ADHD in the short term when used properly.
The findings for long term effects were limited. However, this study
concluded that stimulant medication is a safe and effective treatment
for ADHD.
A 2017 review assessed the advantages and disadvantages of both
behavioral therapies and pharmacological interventions for the treatment
of ADHD.
It was reported that stimulants are a very effective treatment during
the time period in which they are taken. While the short-term benefits
were clearly demonstrated, the long-term benefits were less clear.
Another 2013 review aimed to identify the direct and indirect
impacts of stimulant medication on the long-term outcomes of adults with
ADHD.
It was found that medication was significantly more effective than
placebos for treating adults. Additionally, after conducting
longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, it was reported that stimulant
treatment for ADHD is tolerated well, and has long term benefits.
Reviews of clinical stimulant research have established the safety and effectiveness of long-term amphetamine use for ADHD. An evidence review noted the findings of a randomized controlled trial of amphetamine treatment for ADHD in Swedish children following 9 months of amphetamine use.
During treatment, the children experienced improvements in attention,
disruptive behaviors, and hyperactivity, and an average change of +4.5
in IQ. It was noted that the population in the study had a high rate of comorbid
disorders associated with ADHD, and suggested that other long-term
amphetamine trials in people with fewer associated disorders could find
greater functional improvements.
Treatment non-adherence and acceptability
The
rates of treatment discontinuation are higher than the rates of ADHD
patients that receive no treatment at all; few studies present evidence
that adherence to ADHD treatment is occurring at high rates with low
acceptability.
A literature review on empirical studies from 1997 to 2014 revealed a
lack of research on adult non-adherence, however there is a large body
of research on children and adolescents who discontinue treatment.
Some of the common reasons for stopping treatment includes the idea
that it is not needed or does not reduce the symptoms of ADHD, as well
as reported adverse drug effects like weight and appetite loss, sleeping
difficulties, combined with other medically diagnosed conditions.
Research has shown that adherence and acceptability improvements
are possible with accessible and convenient community-based treatment
options.
Some schools in the United States have attempted to make it mandatory
for hyperactive children to receive medication based treatment in order
to attend classes, however the United States Senate passed a bill in
2005 against this practice.
Potential for misuse
Stimulants used to treat ADHD are classified as Schedule II controlled substances in the United States. Schedule II controlled substances are substances that are highly likely to be abused.
Methylphenidate
has become a commonly used drug for people diagnosed with ADHD. Aside
from its medical usage, it has gained popularity from people who aim to
use the drug as a “study drug” or for a feeling similar to that of cocaine.
A 2005 study looked at 100 college students who used Methylphenidate of
which, 30% of the subjects claimed to use Methylphenidate for studying
purposes, and these students were less likely to partake in intranasal
usage of the substance. The other 70% of the students were using it
recreationally accompanied with other illicit substances, as well as
more likely to partake in intranasal use of methylphenidate.
There were about 6.4 million children who received a diagnosis for ADHD in 2011 according to the CDC.
Both children with and without ADHD abuse stimulants, with ADHD
individuals being at the highest risk of abusing or diverting their
stimulant prescriptions.
In 2008, Between 16 and 29 percent of students who are prescribed stimulants report diverting their prescriptions.
Between 5 and 9 percent of grade/primary and high school children and
between 5 and 35 percent of college students have used nonprescribed
stimulants. Most often their motivation is to concentrate, improve alertness, get high, or to experiment. Stimulant medications may be resold by patients as recreational drugs, and methylphenidate (Ritalin) is used as a study aid by some students without ADHD.
Non-medical prescription stimulant use by US students is high. A
2003 study found that non-prescription use within the last year by
college students in the US was 4.1%.
A 2008 meta-analysis found even higher rates of non-prescribed
stimulant use. It found 5% to 9% of grade school and high school
children and 5% to 35% of college students used a non-prescribed
stimulant in the last year.
In 2009, 8% of United States Major League Baseball
players had been diagnosed with ADHD, making the disorder particularly
common among this population. The increase coincided with the League's
2006 ban on stimulants,
which raised concern that some players were mimicking or falsifying the
symptoms or history of ADHD to get around the ban on the use of
stimulants in sport.
An article in the Los Angeles Times stated that "the uproar over Ritalin was triggered almost single-handedly by the Scientology movement." Ritalin is a common stimulant medication. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an anti-psychiatry
group formed by scientologists in 1969, conducted a major campaign
against Ritalin in the 1980s and lobbied the US Congress for an
investigation into Ritalin.
Scientology publications claimed that the "real target of the campaign"
was "the psychiatric profession itself" and said that the campaign
"brought wide acceptance of the fact that (the commission) [sic] and the Scientologists are the ones effectively doing something about ... psychiatric drugging".
In 2008, it was revealed that Joseph Biederman
of Harvard, a frequently cited ADHD expert, failed to report to Harvard
that he had received $1.6 million from pharmaceutical companies between
2000 and 2007. E. Fuller Torrey,
executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute which
finances psychiatric studies, said "In the area of child psychiatry in
particular, we know much less than we should, and we desperately need
research that is not influenced by industry money."
In 2014, Keith Conners, one of the early advocates for the recognition of the disorder, spoke out against overdiagnosis in a New York Times article. In contrast, a 2014 peer-reviewed medical literature review indicated that ADHD is underdiagnosed in adults.
Stigma
Russell Barkley
believes labeling is a double-edged sword; there are many pitfalls to
labeling but by using a precise label, services can be accessed. He also
believes that labeling can help the individual understand and make an
informed decision how best to deal with the diagnoses using
evidence-based knowledge. Studies also show that the education of the siblings and parents has at least a short-term impact on the outcome of treatment.
Barkley states this about ADHD rights: "... because of various
legislation that has been passed to protect them. There are special
education laws with the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example,
mentioning ADHD as an eligible condition. If you change the label, and
again refer to it as just some variation in normal temperament, these
people will lose access to these services, and will lose these hard-won
protections that keep them from being discriminated against."
Psychiatrist Harvey Parker, who founded CHADD, states, "we should be
celebrating the fact that school districts across the country are
beginning to understand and recognize kids with ADHD, and are finding
ways of treating them. We should celebrate the fact that the general
public doesn't look at ADHD kids as 'bad' kids, as brats, but as kids
who have a problem that they can overcome". However, children may be ridiculed at school by their peers for using psychiatric medications including those for ADHD.
Politics and media
North America
In
1998, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a consensus
statement on the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. The statement, while
recognizing that stimulant treatment is controversial, supports the
validity of the ADHD diagnosis and the efficacy of stimulant treatment.
It found controversy only in the lack of sufficient data on long-term
use of medications and in the need for more research in many areas.
The validity of the work of many of the ADHD experts (including
Biederman) has been called into question by Marcia Angell, former editor
in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, in her book review, "Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption."
Europe
The UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)
concluded that while it is important to acknowledge the body of
academic literature which raises controversies and criticisms
surrounding ADHD for the purpose of developing clinical guidelines, it
is not possible to offer alternative methods of assessment (i.e. ICD 10
and DSM IV) or therapeutic treatment recommendations. NICE stated that
this is because the current therapeutic treatment interventions and
methods of diagnosis for ADHD are based on the dominant view of the
academic literature. NICE further concluded that despite such criticism, ADHD represented a valid clinical condition, with genetic, environmental, neurobiological and demographic factors. The diagnosis has a high level of support from clinicians and medical authorities.
BaronessSusan Greenfield
wanted a wide-ranging inquiry in the UK House of Lords into the
dramatic increase in the diagnosis of ADHD in the UK and its possible
causes. This followed a BBCPanorama program which distorted research in order to suggest that medications are not effective in the long term. In 2010, the BBC Trust criticized the 2007 Panorama program for how it summarized the research, as the research had found that there was a significant improvement over time.
Other notable individuals in the UK have made controversial statements about ADHD. Terence Kealey, a clinical biochemist and vice-chancellor of University of Buckingham, has stated his belief that ADHD medication is used to control unruly boys and girls behavior.
Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK)
broadcast a short television series in early 2005 on the increase in
the use of Ritalin and Concerta for children. Sales were six times
higher in 2004 than in 2002. The series included the announcement of a
successful group therapy program for 127 unmedicated children aged four
to eight, some with ADHD and some with oppositional defiant disorder.
An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived airborne, submerged or transmedium phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. Upon investigation, most UFOs are identified as known objects or atmospheric phenomena, while a small number remain unexplained.
People have always observed the sky and have sometimes seen what, to
some, appeared to be unusual sights including phenomena as varied as comets, bright meteors, one or more of the five planets that can be readily seen with the naked eye, planetary conjunctions, and atmospheric optical phenomena such as parhelia and lenticular clouds. One particularly famous example is Halley's Comet:
first recorded by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC and possibly as early
as 467 BC as a strange and unknown "guest light" in the sky.
As a bright comet that visits the inner solar system every 76 years, it
was often identified as a unique isolated event in ancient historical
documents whose authors were unaware that it was a repeating phenomenon.Such accounts in history often were treated as supernatural portents, angels, or other religious omens.
While UFO enthusiasts have sometimes commented on the narrative
similarities between certain religious symbols in medieval paintings and
UFO reports,
the canonical and symbolic character of such images is documented by
art historians placing more conventional religious interpretations on
such images.
Some examples of pre-contemporary reports about unusual aerial phenomena include:
Julius Obsequens was a Roman writer who is believed to have lived in the middle of the fourth century AD. The only work associated with his name is the Liber de prodigiis (Book of Prodigies), completely extracted from an epitome, or abridgment, written by Livy; De prodigiis was constructed as an account of the wonders and portents that occurred in Rome
between 249 and 12 BCE. An aspect of Obsequens' work that has inspired
excitement in some UFO enthusiasts is that he makes reference to things
moving through the sky. The descriptions provided bear resemblance to
observations of meteor showers.
Obsequens was also writing some 400 years after the events he
described, thus the text is not an eyewitness account. No corroboration
with those amazing sights of old with contemporary observations was
mentioned in that work.
Shen Kuo (1031–1095), a Song Chinese government scholar-official and prolific polymath inventor, wrote a vivid passage in his Dream Pool Essays (1088) about an unidentified flying object. He recorded the testimony of eyewitnesses in 11th-century Anhui and Jiangsu (especially in the city of Yangzhou),
who stated that a flying object with opening doors would shine a
blinding light from its interior (from an object shaped like a pearl)
that would cast shadows from trees for ten miles in radius, and was able to take off at tremendous speeds. The celestial phenomenon over Basel in 1566.
A woodcut by Hans Glaser that appeared in a broadsheet in 1561 has been featured in popular culture as the "celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg" and connected to various ancient astronaut claims. Skeptic and debunker Jason Colavito argues that the woodcut is "a secondhand depiction of a particularly gaudy sundog", a known atmospheric optical phenomenon. A similar report comes from 1566 over Basel
and, indeed, in the 15th and 16th centuries, many leaflets wrote of
"miracles" and "sky spectacles" which bear resemblance to natural
phenomena which were only more fully characterized after the scientific
revolution.
On January 25, 1878, the Denison Daily News
printed an article in which John Martin, a local farmer, had reported
seeing a large, dark, circular object resembling a balloon flying "at
wonderful speed". Martin, according to the newspaper account, said it
appeared to be about the size of a saucer from his perspective, one of
the first uses of the word "saucer" in association with a UFO. At the
time, ballooning
was becoming an increasingly popular and sophisticated endeavor, and
the first controlled-flights of such devices were occurring around that
time.
UFO-like alleged sightings before the 20th century
From November 1896 to April 1897, United States newspapers carried numerous reports of "mystery airships" that are reminiscent of modern UFO waves. Scores of people even reported talking to the pilots. Some people feared that Thomas Edison
had created an artificial star that could fly around the country. On
April 16, 1897, a letter was found that purported to be an enciphered
communication between an airship operator and Edison. When asked his opinion of such reports, Edison said, "You can take it from me that it is a pure fake." The coverage of Edison's denial marked the end of major newspaper coverage of the airships in this period.
In the Pacific and European theatres during World War II, round, glowing fireballs known as "foo fighters" were reported by Allied and Axis pilots. Some explanations for these sightings included St. Elmo's fire, the planet Venus, hallucinations from oxygen deprivation, and German secret weapons (specifically rockets).
In 1946, more than 2,000 reports were collected, primarily by the
Swedish military, of unidentified aerial objects over the Scandinavian
nations, along with isolated reports from France, Portugal, Spain,
Italy, and Greece. The objects were referred to as "Russian hail" (and
later as "ghost rockets") because it was thought the mysterious objects were possibly Russian tests of captured German V1 or V2rockets, but most were identified as natural phenomena as meteors.
Science fiction depictions of spacecraft similar to flying saucers before the first widely-reported UFO sighting in 1947.
Illustration from 1903 by Henrique Alvim Corrêa showing the first Martian emerging from a cylinder that had fallen from the sky for an edition of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.
Cover of French pulp magazine Le Chevalier Illusion from December 29, 1912 portraying a flying machine spreading a toxic gas among the passengers and crew of a ship below
Illustration by Frank R. Paul from February 1922 in Science and Invention showing Nikola Tesla's vision of warfare in the future with sea and air craft "controlled and directed" by radio waves
Cover of Amazing Stories winter 1930 issue depicting a disc-shaped spacecraft
Back cover of Amazing Stories illustrated by Frank R. Paul in August 1946 featuring many disc-shaped spacecraft (published about a year before the flying disc wave of 1947)
Many scholars, especially those arguing for the psychosocial UFO hypothesis, have noted that UFO characteristics reported after the first widely publicized modern sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 resembled a host of science fiction tropes from earlier in the century.
By most accounts, the popular UFO craze in the US began with a media frenzy surrounding the reports on June 24, 1947, of a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold who described seeing "a group of bat-like aircraft flying in formation at high speeds" near Mount Rainier
that he said were "moving like a saucer would if skipped across water"
which led to headlines about "flying saucers" and "flying discs". Only weeks after Arnold's story was reported in 1947, Gallup
published a poll asking people in the United States what the "flying
saucers" might be. Already, 90% had heard of the new term. However, as
reported by historian Greg Eghanian, "a majority either had no idea what
they could be or thought that witnesses were mistaken" while "visitors
from space were not initially among the options that anyone had in mind,
and Gallup didn't even mention if anyone surveyed brought up aliens.
Within weeks, reports of flying saucer sightings became a daily occurrence with one particularly famous example being the Roswell incident in 1947 where remnants of a downed observation balloon were recovered by a farmer and confiscated by military personnel. UFO enthusiasts in the early 1950s started to organize local "saucer clubs" modeled after science fictionfan clubs of the 1930s and 1940s, with some growing to national and international prominence within a decade. In 1950, three influential books were published—Donald Keyhoe's The Flying Saucers Are Real, Frank Scully's Behind the Flying Saucers, and Gerald Heard's The Riddle of the Flying Saucers. Each guilelessly proposed that the extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis was the correct explanation and that the visits were in response to detonations of atomic weapons. These books also introduced Americans to, as Eghanian puts it, "the crusading whistleblower dedicated to breaking the silence over the alien origins of unidentified flying objects". Media accounts and speculation ran rampant in the U.S., especially in connection to the 1952 UFO scare in Washington, D.C. so that, by 1953, the intelligence officials (Robertson Panel)
worried that "genuine incursions" by enemy aircraft "over U.S.
territory could be lost in a maelstrom of kooky hallucination" of UFO
reports.
A Trendex survey in August 1957, ten years after the Arnold incident,
reported that over 25% of the U.S. public "believed unidentified flying
objects could be from outer space". The cultural phenomenon showed up within some intellectual works such as the 1959 publication of Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology.
Starting in 1947, the U.S. Air Force began to record and investigated UFO reports with Project Sign looking into "more than 250 cases" from 1947 to 1949. It was replaced by Project Grudge up through 1951. In the third U.S. Air Force program, from March 1952 to its termination in December 1969, "the U.S. Air Force cataloged 12,618 sightings of UFOs as part of what is now known as Project Blue Book".
In the late 1950s, public pressure mounted for a full declassification
of all UFO records, but the CIA played an role in refusing to allow
this. This sense was not universal in the CIA, however, as fellow NICAP official Donald E. Keyhoe wrote that Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first director of the CIA, "wanted public disclosure of UFO evidence".
Official U.S. Air Force interest in UFO reports went on hiatus in 1969
after a study by the University of Colorado led by Edward U. Condon and
known as the Condon Report
concluded "that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21
years that has added to scientific knowledge" and that further time
investigating UFO reports "cannot be justified".
From the 1960s to 1990s, UFOs were part of American popular culture's obsession with the supernatural and paranormal. In 1961, the first alien abduction account was sensationalized when Barney and Betty Hill underwent hypnosis after seeing a UFO and reported recovered memories of their experience that became ever more elaborate as the years went by.
In 1966, 5% of Americans reported to Gallup that "they had at some time
seen something they thought was a 'flying saucer'", 96% said "they had
heard or read about flying saucers", and 46% of these "thought they were
'something real' rather than just people's imagination". Responding to UFO enthusiasm, there have always been consistent yet less popular efforts made at debunking many of the claims, and at times the media was enlisted including a 1966 TV special, "UFO: Friend, Foe or Fantasy?", in which Walter Cronkite "patiently" explained to viewers that UFOs were fantasy. Cronkite enlisted Carl Sagan and J. Allen Hynek, who told Cronkite, "To this time, there is no valid scientific proof that we have been visited by spaceships".
Such attempts to disenchant the zeitgeist were not very successful at tamping down the mania. Keith Kloor
notes that the "allure of flying saucers" remained popular with the
public into the 1970s, spurring production of such sci-fi films, as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien, which "continued to stoke public fascination". Meanwhile, Leonard Nimoy narrated a popular occult and mystery TV series In Search of... while daytime talk shows of Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, and Phil Donahue featured interviews with alien abductees and people who credulously reported stories about UFOs . In the 1980s and 1990s, UFO stories featured in such pulp "true crime" serials as Unsolved Mysteries while the 33 Volume Time-Life series Mysteries of the Unknown which featured UFO stories sold some 700,000 copies.Kloor writes that by the late 1990s, "other big UFO subthemes had been
prominently introduced into pop culture, such as the abduction
phenomenon and government conspiracy narrative, via best-selling books and, of course, The X-Files".
Eghigian notes that, by this point, the UFO problem had become "far more interesting to ponder than to actually solve." Interest was particularly fevered in the 1990s with the publicity surrounding the television broadcast of an Alien autopsy video marketed as "real footage" but later admitted to be a staged "re-enactment".
Eghigian writes that "there had always been outlier abduction reports
dating back to the '50s and '60s" but that in the '80s and '90s "the
floodgates opened, and with them a new generation of UFO advocates".
Leaders among them were the artist Budd Hopkins, horror writer Whitley Strieber, historian David Jacobs, and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack.
They all defended the "veracity of those claiming to have been
kidnapped, examined, and experimented upon by beings from another
world", writes Eghigian, as "new missionaries who simultaneously played
the role of investigator, therapist, and advocate to their vulnerable
charges".
Eghigian says that Mack "signaled both the culmination and end of the
headiest days of alien abduction". When Mack began working with and
publishing accounts of abductees—or "experiencers", as he called them—in
the early 1990s, he brought a sense of legitimacy to "the study of
extraterrestrial captivity". By the late 1990s, however, the Harvard
Medical School initiated a review of his position which allowed him to
retain tenure. However, after this review, as the review board chairman
Arnold Relman later put it, Mack was "not taken seriously by his
colleagues anymore". Claims of alien abduction have continued, but no
other clinicians would continue to speak of them as real in any sense. Nonetheless, these ideas persisted in popular opinion. According to a 1996 poll by Newsweek, 20% of Americans believed that UFOs were more likely to be proof of alien life than to have a natural scientific explanation.
In December 2017, a new round of media attention started when The New York Times broke the story of the secret Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program that was funded from 2007 to 2012 with $22 million spent on the program. Following this story, along with a serious of sensationalized Pentagon UFO videos
leaked by members of the program who became convinced that UFOs were
genuine mysteries worth investigating, there was an increase in
mainstream attention to UFO stories. In July 2021, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb announced the creation of his Galileo Project
which intended to use high-tech astronomical equipment to seek evidence
of extraterrestrial artifacts in space and possibly within Earth's
atmosphere. This was followed closely by the publication of Loeb's book Extraterrestrial, in which he argued that the first interstellar comet ever observed, 'Oumuamua, might be an artificial light sail made by an alien civilization. Two government sponsored programs, NASA's UAP independent study team and the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office were charged in part by Congressional fiat to investigate UFO claims more fully, adopting the new moniker "unexplained aerial phenomenon" (UAP) to avoid associations with past sensationalism. On 17 May 2022, members of the United States House Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held congressional hearings with top military officials to discuss military reports of UAPs.
It was the first public congressional hearing into UFO sightings in the
US in over 50 years. Another Congressional hearing took place on July
26, 2023, featuring the whistleblower claims of former U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer and intelligence official David Grusch.
A Harris Poll in 2009 found that 32% of Americans "believe in UFOs". A National Geographic study in June 2012 found that 36% of Americans believe UFOs exist and that 10% thought that they had spotted one. In June 2021 a Pew
research poll found that 51% in the United States thought that UFOs
reported by people in the military were likely to be evidence of
intelligent life from beyond the Earth. In August 2021, Gallup,
with a question not specific to military reports, only found that 41%
of adults believed some UFOs involve alien spacecraft from other
planets. This Gallup poll showed 44% of men and 38% of women believed
this. This average of 41% in 2021 was up from 33% in a 2019 Gallup poll
with the same question. Gallup further found that college graduates went
in 2019 from being the least likely educational group to believe this
to being on par in 2021 with adults who have no college education. An October 2022 poll by YouGov only found that 34% of Americans believe that UFOs are likely to involve alien life forms.
Historian Greg Eghigian wrote in August 2021 that "over the last
fifty years, the mutual antagonism between paranormal believers and
skeptics has largely framed discussion about unidentified flying
objects" and that "it often gets personal" with those taking seriously
the prospect that UFOs are extraterrestrial in origin dismissing those
who consider UFOs to be worth studying as "narrow-minded, biased,
obstinate, and cruel" while the skeptics brushed off "devotees" as
"naïve, ignorant, gullible, and downright dangerous". Such "mudslinging
over convictions is certainly familiar to historians of religion, a
domain of human existence marked by deep divisions over interpretations
of belief", and science too has found itself engaged increasing amounts
of "boundary work" (which is "asserting and reasserting the borders
between legitimate and illegitimate scientific research and ideas,
between what may and what may not refer to itself as science") with
regard to UFO questions. Eghigian points out our current "stark divide
did not happen overnight, and its roots lie in the postwar decades, in a
series of events that—with their news coverage, grainy images,
celebrity crusaders, exasperated skeptics, unsatisfying military
statements, and accusations of a government cover-up—foreshadow our
present moment".
UFOs have been taken up by religious studies scholars in various scholarly books. Jeffrey Kripal, chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University,
has said that "both the material and the mental dimensions [of UFOs]
are incredibly important to get a sense of the full picture". As Adrian Horton writes "from The X-Files to Men in Black, Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Star Wars to Marvel, Hollywood
has for decades provided an engrossing feedback loop for interest in
the extraterrestrial: a reflection of our fears and capaciousness, whose
ubiquitous popularity has in turn fueled more interest in UFOs as
perennially compelling entertainment tropes not to be taken seriously".
Horton observes that these "alien movies have generally reflected
shifting cultural anxieties, from the existential terror of nuclear war
to foreign enslavement to loss of bodily control". American
entertainment has explored both "hostile aliens" as well as the
"benevolent, world-expanding encounters" seen in films such as Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In her research on the relationship of media to UFO beliefs, Diana Walsh Pasulka,
a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of North
Carolina, says that what is seen on a screen, "if it conforms to certain
criteria, is interpreted as real, even if it is not real and even if
one knows it is not real" and that "screen images embed themselves in
one's brain and memories" in ways that "can determine how one views
one's past and even determine one's future behaviors".
The Rendlesham Forest incident
was a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near
Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, England in late December 1980 which became
linked with claims of UFO landings.
France
The most notable cases of UFO sightings in France include:
A Roswell Daily Record on July 8, 1947, reporting a UFO case
United States
In the Kecksburg UFO incident, Pennsylvania (1965), residents reported seeing an object crash in the area.
In 1975, Travis Walton claimed to be abducted by aliens. The movie Fire in the Sky (1993) was based on this event, but greatly embellished the original account.
The USAF's Project Blue Book files indicate that approximately 1% of all unknown reports
came from amateur and professional astronomers or other telescope users
(such as missile trackers or surveyors). In 1952, astronomer J. Allen
Hynek, then a consultant to Blue Book, conducted a small survey of 45
fellow professional astronomers. Five reported UFO sightings (about
11%). In the 1970s, astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock conducted two large surveys of the AIAA and American Astronomical Society (AAS). About 5% of the members polled indicated that they had had UFO sightings.
Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh,
who saw six UFOs, including three green fireballs, supported the
extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs and said scientists who dismissed
it without study were "unscientific". Another astronomer, Lincoln LaPaz,
headed the United States Air Force's investigation into green fireballs
and other UFO phenomena in New Mexico. LaPaz reported two personal
sightings, of a green fireball and a disc. (Both Tombaugh and LaPaz were
part of Hynek's 1952 survey.) Hynek took two photos through the window
of a commercial airliner of a disc that seemed to keep pace with his
aircraft.
Astronomer Andrew Fraknoi
rejected the hypothesis that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft and
responded to the "onslaught of credulous coverage" in books, films and
entertainment by teaching his students to apply critical thinking to
such claims, advising them that "being a good scientist is not unlike
being a good detective". According to Fraknoi, UFO reports "might at
first seem mysterious", but "the more you investigate, the more likely
you are to find that there is LESS to these stories than meets the eye".
In a 1980 survey of 1800 members of amateur astronomer associations by Gert Helb and Hynek
for CUFOS, 24% responded "yes" to the question "Have you ever observed
an object which resisted your most exhaustive efforts at
identification?"
George Adamski,
over the space of two decades, made various claims about his meetings
with telepathic aliens from nearby planets. He claimed photographs of
the far side of the Moon taken by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3
in 1959 were fake, and that there were cities, trees and snow-capped
mountains on the far side of the Moon. Among copycats was a shadowy
British figure named Cedric Allingham.
Ed Walters, a building contractor, in 1987 allegedly perpetrated a hoax in Gulf Breeze, Florida.
Walters claimed at first having seen a small UFO flying near his home
and took some photographs of the craft. Walters reported and documented a
series of UFO sightings over a period of three weeks and took several
photographs. These sightings became famous, and are collectively
referred to as the Gulf Breeze UFO incident.
Three years later, in 1990, after the Walters family had moved, the new
residents discovered a model of a UFO poorly hidden in the attic that
bore an undeniable resemblance to the craft in Walters' photographs.
Most investigators, like the forensic photo expert William G. Hyzer, now consider the sightings to be a hoax.
Terminology
Etymology of key terms
According to Merriam-Webster, "the term UAP first appeared in the late 1960s, while UFO has been around since 1947". The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'". The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was adopted as a standard in 1953 by the United States Air Force
(USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial
definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which
by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does
not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which
cannot be positively identified as a familiar object". Accordingly, the
term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained
unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in
potential national security reasons and "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2).
During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs" due to the term being introduced in the context of the Kenneth Arnold incident. The Avro CanadaVZ-9AV Avrocar was a concept vehicle produced during the 1950s, which was a functional aircraft with a saucer shape.
UFOs were commonly referred to colloquially, as a "Bogey" by Western
military personnel and pilots during the cold war. The term "bogey" was
originally used to report anomalies in radar blips, to indicate possible
hostile forces that might be roaming in the area.
The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in
technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered
considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with heightened concerns about national security, and, more recently, in the 2010s, for unexplained reasons.
Nevertheless, various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does
not represent a threat, and nor does it contain anything worthy of
scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIARobertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).
As an acronym, "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt,
who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of
UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when
applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this
reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name:
unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced yoo-foe) for short."
Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO
acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying
discs", and "unidentifiable object".
In popular usage, the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft, and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some ufologists
and investigators prefer to use terms such as "unidentified aerial
phenomenon" (UAP) or simply "anomalous phenomena", as in the name of the
National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).
"Anomalous aerial vehicle" (AAV) or "unidentified aerial system" (UAS)
are also sometimes used in a military aviation context to describe
unidentified targets.
More recently, U.S. officials have adopted the term "unidentified aerial phenomenon" (UAP), sometimes expanded as "unidentified anomalous phenomenon" (see below). As summarized in ETC: A Review of General Semantics, "aside from UAP's more encompassing description, this term avoids the heavy cultural baggage attached to UFO, whose initial association with extraterrestrial origins ...sets up a narrow and inflexible framework for honest scientific research." The term UFO now has decades of association with aliens across many areas of culture, popular entertainment, conspiracy theories, and religious movements as considered in American Cosmic by Diana Walsh Pasulka (published by Oxford in 2019).
"Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), formerly referred to as UFOs, in
theory, could include alien spacecraft, but the two aren't synonymous."
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (signed into law on December 23, 2022) defined "unidentified anomalous phenomena" in 50 U.S.C.§ 3373(n)(8)
to include not only "airborne objects" but also "submerged objects or
devices" and "transmedium objects or devices" that are not immediately
identifiable. In 2023, NASA's UAPIST study team changed the official
meaning of the "A" in its name from "Aerial" to "Anomalous" to reflect
their new mission as an "All-Anomaly" task force.
While technically a UFO refers to any unidentified flying object, in modern popular culture the term UFO has generally become synonymous with alien spacecraft; however, the term ETV (extra-terrestrial vehicle) is sometimes used to separate this explanation of UFOs from totally earthbound explanations, including the cryptoterrestrial hypothesis, or from other interpretations of the phenomenon such as the interdimensional hypothesis, the time-traveler hypothesis or the psychosocial hypothesis.
Investigations of reports
UFOs have been subject to investigations over the years that varied
widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent
academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Peru,
France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Spain, and the
Soviet Union
are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times. No
official government investigation has ever publicly concluded that UFOs
are indisputably real, physical objects, extraterrestrial in origin, or
of concern to national defense.
A Fata Morgana, a type of mirage in which objects located below the astronomical horizon appear to be hovering in the sky just above the horizon, may be responsible for some UFO sightings.
Studies show that after careful investigation, the majority of UFOs
can be identified as ordinary objects or phenomena. The most commonly
found identified sources of UFO reports are:
A 1952–1955 study by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the USAF included these categories. An individual 1979 study by CUFOS researcher Allan Hendry
found, as did other investigations, that fewer than one percent of
cases he investigated were hoaxes and most sightings were actually
honest misidentifications of prosaic phenomena. Hendry attributed most
of these to inexperience or misperception.
Americas
Brazil (1952–2016)
A document about a sighting of a UFO that occurred on December 16, 1977, in the state of Bahia, Brazil
On October 31, 2008, the National Archives of Brazil began receiving from the Aeronautical Documentation and History Center part of the documentation of the Brazilian Air Force regarding the investigation of the appearance of UFOs in Brazil. Currently, this collection gathers cases between 1952 and 2016.
Chile (c. 1968)
In 1968, the SEFAA (previously CEFAA) began receiving case reports of the general public, civil aviators and the Chilean Air Force regarding the sightings or the appearance of UFOs in Chile,
the initial work was an initiative of Sergio Bravo Flores who led the
Chilean Committee for the Study of Unidentified Space Phenomena,
supported even by the Chilean Scientific Society. Currently, the
organization changed its denomination to SEFAA and its a department of
the DGAC(Chile) which in turn depends on the Chilean Air Force.
The Robertson Panel was a scientific committee which met in January 1953 to review the Project Blue Book report January 1953
The Brookings Report, Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs, in conjunction with NASA's Committee on Long-Range Studies, reported to Congress 1960
The Condon Committee, an informal University of Colorado UFO Project funded by the USAF, 1966 to 1968.
The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group,
the Pentagon, to investigate unidentified objects that may compromise
the airspace of the United States, from November 24, 2021, ongoing.
In addition to these, thousands of documents released under FOIA
also indicate that many U.S. intelligence agencies collected (and still
collect) information on UFOs. These agencies include the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), as well as military intelligence agencies of the Army and U.S. Navy, in addition to the Air Force.
USAAF and FBI response to the 1947 sightings
Following the large U.S. surge in sightings in June and early July 1947, on July 9, 1947, United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) intelligence, in cooperation with the FBI,
began a formal investigation into selected sightings with
characteristics that could not be immediately rationalized, such as
Kenneth Arnold's. The USAAF used "all of its top scientists" to
determine whether "such a phenomenon could, in fact, occur". The
research was "being conducted with the thought that the flying objects
might be a celestial phenomenon," or that "they might be a foreign body
mechanically devised and controlled."
Three weeks later in a preliminary defense estimate, the air force
investigation decided that, "This 'flying saucer' situation is not all
imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is
really flying around."
A further review by the intelligence and technical divisions of the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field
reached the same conclusion. It reported that "the phenomenon is
something real and not visionary or fictitious," and there were
disc-shaped objects, metallic in appearance, as big as man-made
aircraft. They were characterized by "extreme rates of climb [and]
maneuverability", general lack of noise, absence of a trail, occasional
formation flying, and "evasive" behavior "when sighted or contacted by
friendly aircraft and radar", suggesting a controlled craft. It was
therefore recommended in late September 1947 that an official Air Force
investigation be set up. It was also recommended that other government
agencies should assist in the investigation.
USAF
Projects Sign (1947–1949), Grudge (1948–1951), and Blue Book (1951–1970)
Project Sign's final report, published in early 1949, stated that
while some UFOs appeared to represent actual aircraft, there was not
enough data to determine their origin.
The Air Force's Project Sign was created at the end of 1947, and
was one of the earliest government studies to come to a secret
extraterrestrial conclusion. In August 1948, Sign investigators wrote a
top-secret intelligence estimate to that effect, but the Air Force Chief of StaffHoyt Vandenberg
ordered it destroyed. The existence of this suppressed report was
revealed by several insiders who had read it, such as astronomer and
USAF consultant J. Allen Hynek and Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first
head of the USAF's Project Blue Book.
Another highly classified U.S. study was conducted by the CIA's
Office of Scientific Investigation (OS/I) in the latter half of 1952 in
response to orders from the National Security Council
(NSC). This study concluded UFOs were real physical objects of
potential threat to national security. One OS/I memo to the CIA Director
(DCI) in December read that "the reports of incidents convince us that
there is something going on that must have immediate attention ...
Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at
high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of
such a nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or any
known types of aerial vehicles."
The matter was considered so urgent that OS/I drafted a
memorandum from the DCI to the NSC proposing that the NSC establish an
investigation of UFOs as a priority project throughout the intelligence
and the defense research and development community. It also urged the
DCI to establish an external research project of top-level scientists,
now known as the Robertson Panel to analyze the problem of UFOs. The
OS/I investigation was called off after the Robertson Panel's negative
conclusions in January 1953.
Project Sign was dismantled and became Project Grudge at the end
of 1948. Angered by the low quality of investigations by Grudge, the Air
Force Director of Intelligence reorganized it as Project Blue Book in
late 1951, placing Ruppelt in charge. J. Allen Hynek,
a trained astronomer who served as a scientific advisor for Project
Blue Book, was initially skeptical of UFO reports, but eventually came
to the conclusion that many of them could not be satisfactorily
explained and was highly critical of what he described as "the cavalier
disregard by Project Blue Book of the principles of scientific
investigation". Leaving government work, he founded the privately funded CUFOS, to whose work he devoted the rest of his life. Other private groups studying the phenomenon include the MUFON, a grassroots organization whose investigator's handbooks go into great detail on the documentation of alleged UFO sightings.
USAF Regulation 200-2 (1953–1954)
Air Force Regulation 200-2,
issued in 1953 and 1954, defined an Unidentified Flying Object ("UFOB")
as "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic
characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently
known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified
as a familiar object." The regulation also said UFOBs were to be
investigated as a "possible threat to the security of the United States"
and "to determine technical aspects involved." The regulation went on
to say that "it is permissible to inform news media representatives on
UFOB's when the object is positively identified as a familiar object"
but added: "For those objects which are not explainable, only the fact
that ATIC [Air Technical Intelligence Center] will analyze the data is
worthy of release, due to many unknowns involved."
A public research effort conducted by the Condon Committee for the
USAF and published as the Condon Report arrived at a negative conclusion
in 1968.
Blue Book closed down in 1970, using the Condon Committee's negative
conclusion as a rationale, thus ending official Air Force UFO
investigations. However, a 1969 USAF document, known as the Bolender
memo, along with later government documents, revealed that non-public U.S. government
UFO investigations continued after 1970. The Bolender memo first stated
that "reports of unidentified flying objects that could affect national
security ... are not part of the Blue Book system," indicating that
more serious UFO incidents already were handled outside the public Blue
Book investigation. The memo then added, "reports of UFOs which could
affect national security would continue to be handled through the
standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose."
In the late 1960s, a chapter on UFOs in the Space Sciences course at the U.S. Air Force Academy
gave serious consideration to possible extraterrestrial origins. When
word of the curriculum became public, in 1970, the Air Force issued a
statement to the effect that the book was outdated and cadets instead
were being informed of the Condon Report's negative conclusion.
Controversy surrounded the report, both before and after its
release. It has been observed that the report was "harshly criticized by
numerous scientists, particularly at the powerful AIAA ... [which]
recommended moderate, but continuous scientific work on UFOs." In an address to the AAAS, James E. McDonald
said he believed science had failed to mount adequate studies of the
problem and criticized the Condon Report and earlier studies by the USAF
as scientifically deficient. He also questioned the basis for Condon's
conclusions and argued that the reports of UFOs have been "laughed out of scientific court".
J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who worked as a USAF consultant from
1948, sharply criticized the Condon Committee Report and later wrote two
nontechnical books that set forth the case for continuing to
investigate UFO reports.
Ruppelt recounted his experiences with Project Blue Book, a USAF investigation that preceded Condon's.
FOIA release of documents in 1978
According to a 1979 New York Times
report, "records from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other Federal
agencies" ("about 900 documents—nearly 900 pages of memos, reports and
correspondence") obtained in 1978 through the Freedom of Information Act
request, indicate that "despite official pronouncements for decades
that U.F.O.'s were nothing more than misidentified aerial objects and as
such were no cause for alarm ... the phenomenon has aroused much
serious behind‐the‐scenes concern" in the US government. In particular,
officials were concerned over the "approximately 10%" of UFO sightings
which remained unexplained, and whether they might be Soviet aircraft
and a threat to national security.
Officials were concerned about the "risk of false alerts", of "falsely
identifying the real as phantom", and of mass hysteria caused by
sightings. In 1947, Brigadier General George F. Schulgen of Army Air
Corps Intelligence, warned "the first reported sightings might have been
by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing
hysteria and fear of a secret Russian weapon."
White House statement of November 2011
In November 2011, the White House
released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S.
government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited this planet
and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions
with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response:
The U.S. government has no evidence
that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial
presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race...no
credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from
the public's eye....
— Statement by the White House
The response further noted that efforts, like SETI and NASA's Kepler space telescope and Mars Science Laboratory, continue looking for signs of life.
The response noted "odds are pretty high" that there may be life on
other planets but "the odds of us making contact with any of
them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved."
ODNI report 2021
On June 25, 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report on UAPs.
The report found that the UAPTF was unable to identify 143 objects
spotted between 2004 and 2021. The report said that 18 of these featured
unusual movement patterns or flight characteristics, adding that more
analysis was needed to determine if those sightings represented
"breakthrough" technology. The report said that "some of these steps are
resource-intensive and would require additional investment." The report did not link the sightings to extraterrestrial life.
Uruguay (c. 1989)
The Uruguayan Air Force
has conducted UFO investigations since 1989 and reportedly analyzed
2,100 cases of which they regard approximately 2% as lacking
explanation.
Europe
France (1977–2008)
In March 2007, the French space agency CNES published an archive of UFO sightings and other phenomena online.
French studies include GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN
within CNES (French space agency), the longest ongoing
government-sponsored investigation. About 22% of the 6,000 cases studied
remain unexplained. The official opinion of GEPAN/SEPRA/GEIPAN has been neutral, stating on their FAQ
page that their mission is fact-finding for the scientific community,
not rendering an opinion. They add they can neither prove nor disprove
the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH), but their Steering Committee's
clear position is that they cannot discard the possibility that some
fraction of the very strange 22% of unexplained cases might be due to
distant and advanced civilizations.
Possibly their bias may be indicated by their use of the terms "PAN" (French) or "UAP" (English equivalent) for "Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon" (whereas "UAP" is normally used by English organizations stands for "Unidentified Aerial
Phenomenon", a more neutral term). In addition, the three heads of the
studies have gone on record in stating that UFOs were real physical
flying machines beyond our knowledge or that the best explanation for
the most inexplicable cases was an extraterrestrial one. In 2007, the CNES's own report stated that, at that time, 28% of sightings remained unidentified.
In 2008, Michel Scheller, president of the Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France (3AF), created the Sigma Commission. Its purpose was to investigate UFO phenomena worldwide. A progress report published in May 2010 stated that the central hypothesis proposed by the COMETA report is perfectly credible.
In December 2012, the final report of the Sigma Commission was
submitted to Scheller. Following the submission of the final report, the
Sigma2 Commission is to be formed with a mandate to continue the
scientific investigation of UFO phenomena.
Italy (1933–2005)
Alleged UFO sightings gradually increased since the war, peaking in
1978 and 2005. The total number of sightings since 1947 are 18,500, of
which 90% are identifiable.
United Kingdom (1951–2009)
The UK's Flying Saucer Working Party
published its final report in June 1951, which remained secret for over
fifty years. The Working Party concluded that all UFO sightings could
be explained as misidentifications of ordinary objects or phenomena,
optical illusions, psychological misperceptions/aberrations, or hoaxes.
The report stated: "We accordingly recommend very strongly that no
further investigation of reported mysterious aerial phenomena be
undertaken, unless and until some material evidence becomes available."
Eight file collections on UFO sightings, dating from 1978 to 1987, were first released on May 14, 2008, to The National Archives by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Although kept secret from the public for many years, most of the files
have low levels of classification and none are classified Top Secret.
200 files are set to be made public by 2012. The files are
correspondence from the public sent to the British government and
officials, such as the MoD and Margaret Thatcher. The MoD released the files under the Freedom of Information Act due to requests from researchers. These files include, but are not limited to, UFOs over Liverpool and Waterloo Bridge in London.
On October 20, 2008, more UFO files were released. One case
released detailed that in 1991 an Alitalia passenger aircraft was
approaching London Heathrow Airport when the pilots saw what they described as a "cruise missile"
fly extremely close to the cockpit. The pilots believed a collision was
imminent. UFO expert David Clarke says this is one of the most
convincing cases for a UFO he has come across.
A secret study of UFOs was undertaken for the Ministry of Defence
between 1996 and 2000 and was code-named Project Condign. The resulting
report, titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Defence
Region", was publicly released in 2006, but the identity and credentials
of whoever constituted Project Condign remains classified. The report
confirmed earlier findings that the main causes of UFO sightings are
misidentification of man-made and natural objects. The report noted: "No
artefacts of unknown or unexplained origin have been reported or handed
to the UK authorities, despite thousands of Unidentified Aerial
Phenomena reports. There are no SIGINT, ELINT or radiation measurements and little useful video or still IMINT."
It concluded: "There is no evidence that any UAP, seen in the
UKADR [UK Air Defence Region], are incursions by air-objects of any
intelligent (extraterrestrial or foreign) origin, or that they represent
any hostile intent." A little-discussed conclusion of the report was
that novel meteorological plasma phenomenon akin to ball lightning are responsible for "the majority, if not all" of otherwise inexplicable sightings, especially reports of black triangle UFOs.
On December 1, 2009, the Ministry of Defence quietly closed down
its UFO investigations unit. The unit's hotline and email address were
suspended by the MoD on that date. The MoD said there was no value in
continuing to receive and investigate sightings in a release, stating
that "in over fifty years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a
potential threat to the United Kingdom. The MoD has no specific
capability for identifying the nature of such sightings. There is no
Defence benefit in such investigation and it would be an inappropriate
use of defence resources. Furthermore, responding to reported UFO
sightings diverts MoD resources from tasks that are relevant to
Defence." The Guardian
reported that the MoD claimed the closure would save the Ministry
around £50,000 a year. The MoD said it would continue to release UFO
files to the public through The National Archives.
UFO reports, Parliamentary questions, and letters from members of
the public were released on August 5, 2010, to the UK National
Archives. "In one letter included in the files, a man alleges Churchill
ordered a coverup of a WW II-era UFO encounter involving the Royal Air
Force".
Reports of UFO sightings continue. According to The Independent, there were 957 reported UFO sightings across the UK between January 2021 and May 2023, with Manchester, London, Liverpool, and Glasgow being hotspots.
Studies
Critics argue that all UFO evidence is anecdotal
and can be explained as prosaic natural phenomena. Defenders of UFO
research counter that knowledge of observational data, other than what
is reported in the popular media, is limited in the scientific community
and further study is needed.
Studies have established that the majority of UFO observations are
misidentified conventional objects or natural phenomena—most commonly
aircraft, balloons including sky lanterns, satellites, and astronomical objects such as meteors, bright stars and planets. A small percentage are hoaxes.
Fewer than 10% of reported sightings remain unexplained after
proper investigation and therefore can be classified as unidentified in
the strictest sense. According to Steven Novella, proponents of the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) suggest these unexplained reports are of alien spacecraft, however the null hypothesis
cannot be excluded; that these reports are simply other more prosaic
phenomena that cannot be identified due to lack of complete information
or due to the necessary subjectivity of the reports. Novella says that
instead of accepting the null hypothesis, UFO enthusiasts tend to engage
in special pleading by offering outlandish, untested explanations for the validity of the ETH, which violate Occam's razor.
Historically, ufology has not been considered credible in mainstream science. The scientific community has generally deemed that UFO sightings are not worthy of serious investigation except as a cultural artifact.
Studies of UFOs rarely appear in mainstream scientific literature.
When asked, some scientists and scientific organizations have pointed to
the end of official governmental studies in the U.S. in December 1969,
following the statement by the government scientist Edward Condon that further study of UFOs could not be justified on grounds of scientific advancement.
Nevertheless, on 14 September 2023, NASA reported the appointment, for the first time, of a NASA Director of UAP Research (known earlier as U.F.O.), identified as Mark McInerney, to scientifically, and transparently, study such occurrences.
Status as a pseudoscience
Despite investigations sponsored by governments and private entities,
ufology is not embraced by academia as a scientific field of study, and
is instead generally considered a pseudoscience by skeptics and science educators, being often included on lists of topics characterized as pseudoscience as either a partial or total pseudoscience.Pseudoscience
is a term that classifies arguments that are claimed to exemplify the
methods and principles of science, but do not adhere to an appropriate scientific method, lack supporting evidence, plausibility, falsifiability, or otherwise lack scientific status.
Some writers have identified social factors that contribute to the status of ufology as a pseudoscience,
with one study suggesting that "any science doubt surrounding
unidentified flying objects and aliens was not primarily due to the
ignorance of ufologists about science, but rather a product of the
respective research practices of and relations between ufology, the
sciences, and government investigative bodies". One study suggests that "the rudimentary standard of science communication
attending to the extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) hypothesis for
UFOs inhibits public understanding of science, dissuades academic
inquiry within the physical and social sciences, and undermines
progressive space policy initiatives".
Jacques Vallée,
a scientist and ufologist, claimed there were deficiencies in most UFO
research, including government studies. He criticized the mythology and
cultism often associated with UFO sightings, but despite the challenges,
Vallée contended that several hundred professional scientists—a group
both he and Hynek termed "the invisible college"—continued to study UFOs
quietly on their own time.
Studies
UFOs have become a prevalent theme in modern culture, and the social phenomena have been the subject of academic research in sociology and psychology.
In 2021, astronomer Avi Loeb launched The Galileo Project
which intends to collect and report scientific evidence of
extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial technology on or near Earth via
telescopic observations.
In Germany, the University of Würzburg is developing intelligent sensors that can help detect and analyze aerial objects in hopes of applying such technology to UAP.
A 2021 Gallup
poll found that belief among Americans in some UFOs being
extraterrestrial spacecraft grew between 2019 and 2021 from 33% to 41%.
Gallup cited increased coverage in mainstream news and scrutiny from
government authorities as a factor in changing attitudes towards UFOs.
In 2022, NASA announced a nine-month study starting in the fall
to help establish a road map for investigating UAP – or for
reconnaissance of the publicly available data it might use for such
research.
In 2023, the RAND Corporation published a study reviewing 101,151 public
reports of UAP sightings in the United States from 1998 to 2022.
The models used to conduct the analysis showed that reports of UAP
sightings were less likely within 30 km of weather stations, 60 km of
civilian airports, and in more–densely populated areas, while rural
areas tended to have a higher rate of UAP reports. The most consistent
and statistically significant finding was that reports of UAP sightings
were more likely to occur within 30 km of military operations areas,
where routine military training occurs.
Sturrock panel categorization
Besides anecdotal visual sightings, reports sometimes include claims
of other kinds of evidence, including cases studied by the military and
various government agencies of different countries (such as Project Blue
Book, the Condon Committee, the French GEPAN/SEPRA, and Uruguay's current Air Force study).
A comprehensive scientific review of cases where physical
evidence was available was carried out by the 1998 Sturrock panel, with
specific examples of many of the categories listed below.
Radar contact and tracking, sometimes from multiple sites. These
have included military personnel and control tower operators,
simultaneous visual sightings, and aircraft intercepts. One such example
was the mass sightings of large, silent, low-flying black triangles in 1989 and 1990 over Belgium, tracked by NATO
radar and jet interceptors, and investigated by Belgium's military
(included photographic evidence). Another famous case from 1986 was the Japan Air Lines flight 1628 incident over Alaska investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Photographic evidence, including still photos, movie film, and video.
Claims of physical trace of landing UFOs, including ground
impressions, burned or desiccated soil, burned and broken foliage,
magnetic anomalies, increased radiation levels, and metallic traces. (See, e. g. Height 611 UFO incident or the 1964 Lonnie Zamora's Socorro, New Mexico
encounter of the USAF Project Blue Book cases.) A well-known example
from December 1980 was the USAF Rendlesham Forest incident in England.
Another occurred in January 1981 in Trans-en-Provence and was
investigated by GEPAN, then France's official government
UFO-investigation agency. Project Blue Book head Edward J. Ruppelt
described a classic 1952 CE2 case involving a patch of charred grass
roots.
Physiological effects on people and animals including temporary paralysis, skin burns and rashes, corneal burns, and symptoms superficially resembling radiation poisoning, such as the Cash-Landrum incident in 1980.
Animal/cattle mutilation cases, which some feel are also part of the UFO phenomenon.
Biological effects on plants such as increased or decreased growth,
germination effects on seeds, and blown-out stem nodes (usually
associated with physical trace cases or crop circles)
Electromagnetic interference (EM) effects. A famous 1976 military case over Tehran,
recorded in CIA and DIA classified documents, was associated with
communication losses in multiple aircraft and weapons system failure in
an F-4 Phantom II jet interceptor as it was about to fire a missile on one of the UFOs.
Apparent remote radiation detection, some noted in FBI and CIA documents occurring over government nuclear installations at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1950, also reported by Project Blue Book director Edward J. Ruppelt in his book.
Claimed artifacts of UFOs themselves, such as 1957, Ubatuba, Brazil, magnesium fragments analyzed by the Brazilian government and in the Condon Report and by others. The 1964 Lonnie Zamora incident also left metal traces, analyzed by NASA. A more recent example involves a teardrop-shaped object recovered by Bob White and was featured in a television episode of UFO Hunters but was later found to be accumulated waste metal residue from a grinding machine.
A scientifically skeptical group that has for many years offered critical analyses of UFO claims is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
(CSI). One example is the response to local beliefs that
"extraterrestrial beings" in UFOs were responsible for crop circles
appearing in Indonesia, which the government and the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space
(LAPAN) described as "man-made". Thomas Djamaluddin, research professor
of astronomy and astrophysics at LAPAN stated: "We have come to agree
that this 'thing' cannot be scientifically proven. Scientists have put
UFOs in the category of pseudoscience."
UFO drawing, authenticity unknown, attribution and date unspecified. One of hundreds of files resulting from US President Bill Clinton's 1995 order to the CIA to declassify all documents with "historical value" that were at least 25 years old.
UFOs have been the subject of investigations by various governments
that have provided extensive records related to the subject. Many of the
most involved government-sponsored investigations ended after agencies
concluded that there was no benefit to continued investigation. These same negative conclusions also have been found in studies that were highly classified for many years, such as the UK's Flying Saucer Working Party, Project Condign,
the U.S. CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel, the U.S. military investigation
into the green fireballs from 1948 to 1951, and the Battelle Memorial
Institute study for the USAF from 1952 to 1955 (Project Blue Book
Special Report No. 14).
Some public government reports have acknowledged the possibility
of the physical reality of UFOs, but have stopped short of proposing
extraterrestrial origins, though not dismissing the possibility
entirely. Examples are the Belgian military investigation into large triangles over their airspace in 1989–1991 and the 2009 Uruguayan Air Force study conclusion (see below).
Claims by military, government, and aviation personnel
In 2007, former Arizona governor Fife Symington
claimed he had seen "a massive, delta-shaped craft silently navigate
over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona" in 1997.
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell
claimed he knew of senior government employees who had been involved in
"close encounters", and because of this, he has no doubt that aliens
have visited Earth.
In May 2019, The New York Times reported that American
Navy fighter jets had several instances of unidentified instrumentation
and tracking data while conducting exercises off the eastern seaboard of
the United States from the summer of 2014 to March 2015. The Times
published a cockpit instrument video that appeared to show an object
moving at high speed near the ocean surface as it appeared to rotate,
and objects that appeared capable of high acceleration, deceleration and
maneuverability. In two separate incidents, a pilot reported his
cockpit instruments locked onto and tracked objects but he was unable to
see them through his helmet camera. In another encounter, flight
instruments recorded an image described as a sphere encasing a cube
between two jets as they flew about 100 feet apart. The Pentagon officially released these videos on April 27, 2020. The United States Navy
has said there have been "a number of reports of unauthorized and/or
unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and
designated air space in recent years".
In March 2021, news media announced a comprehensive report is to be compiled of UFO events accumulated by the United States over the years.
On April 12, 2021, the Pentagon confirmed the authenticity of pictures and videos gathered by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), purportedly showing "pyramid shaped objects" hovering above the USS Russell in 2019, off the coast of California,
with spokeswoman Susan Gough saying "I can confirm that the referenced
photos and videos were taken by Navy personnel. The UAPTF has included
these incidents in their ongoing examinations."
In May 2021, military pilots recalled their related encounters,
along with camera and radar support, including one pilot's account
noting that such incidents occurred "every day for at least a couple of
years", according to an interview broadcast on the news program, 60 Minutes (May 16, 2021). Science writer and skeptic Mick West suggested the image was the result of an optical effect called a bokeh which can make out of focus light sources appear triangular or pyramidal due to the shape of the aperture of some lenses. In August, 2022, an article by West provided his detailed analysis of the video.
On June 25, 2021, U.S. Defense and intelligence officials released the nine pages Pentagon UFO Report
(Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) on what they
know about a series of unidentified flying objects that have been seen
by American military pilots in the skies between 2004 and 2021.The document refers to UAP rather than UFO.
The report does not mentions extraterrestrials, but instead warns
of the phenomenon's potential threat to national security, which was
the primary motive for writing the study. It concludes that the objects
found by the US military appear to be real in the majority of the 144
occurrences documented. Only one of the cases described in the study was
identified as a balloon.
"Most of the UAP reported probably do represent physical objects
given that a majority of UAP were registered across multiple sensors, to
include radar, infrared, electro-optical, weapon seekers, and visual
observation", according to the report.
The report also stated that "UAP probably lack a single explanation",
and proposed five possible categories of explanation: airborne clutter,
natural atmospheric phenomena, US government or industry development
technology, foreign craft, and an "Other" category.
Commenting on the document, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that he did not think we are alone, but the UFO sightings by pilots "may not be extraterrestrial."
In December 2021, further official governmental investigations
into UAPs and related, along with annual unclassified reports presented
to Congress, have been authorized and funded. Some have raised concerns about the new investigations.
UFOs are sometimes an element of conspiracy theories in which
governments are allegedly intentionally "covering up" the existence of
aliens by removing physical evidence of their presence or even
collaborating with extraterrestrial beings. There are many versions of
this story; some are exclusive, while others overlap with various other
conspiracy theories.
In the U.S., an opinion poll conducted in 1997 suggested that 80%
of Americans believed the U.S. government was withholding such
information. Various notables have also expressed such views. Some examples are astronauts Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell, Senator Barry Goldwater, Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter (the first CIA director), Lord Hill-Norton
(former British Chief of Defense Staff and NATO head), the 1999 French
COMETA study by various French generals and aerospace experts, and Yves Sillard (former director of CNES, new director of French UFO research organization GEIPAN).
In June 2023, United States Air Force officer and former intelligence official David Grusch
claimed that the U.S. federal government has maintained a highly
secretive UFO retrieval program since the 1940s and that the government
possesses multiple spacecraft of "non-human" origin.
"Disclosure" advocates
In May 2001, a press conference was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., by an organization called the Disclosure Project, featuring twenty persons including retired Air Force and FAA personnel, intelligence officers and an air traffic controller.
They all gave a brief account of their claims that evidence of UFOs was
being suppressed and said they would be willing to testify under oath
to a Congressional committee. According to a 2002 report in the Oregon Daily Emerald, Disclosure Project founder Steven M. Greer
is an "alien theorist" who claims "proof of government coverup"
consisting of 120 hours of testimony from various government officials
on the topic of UFOs, including astronaut Gordon Cooper.
In 2007, the German UFO conspiracy forum Disclose.tv was created. The website's name references the concept of disclosure.
On September 27, 2010, a group of six former USAF officers and
one former enlisted Air Force man held a press conference at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on the theme "U.S. Nuclear
Weapons Have Been Compromised by Unidentified Aerial Objects" in which they claimed they had witnessed UFOs hovering near missile sites and even disarming the missiles.
From April 29 to May 3, 2013, the Paradigm Research Group held
the "Citizen Hearing on Disclosure" at the National Press Club. The
group paid former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel and former Representatives Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Roscoe Bartlett, Merrill Cook, Darlene Hooley, and Lynn Woolsey
$20,000 each to hear testimony from a panel of researchers which
included witnesses from military, agency, and political backgrounds.
Fringe
The void left by the lack of institutional or scientific study has
given rise to independent researchers and fringe groups, including the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in the mid-20th century and, more recently, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). The term "Ufology" is used to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects.
Private
Some private studies have been neutral in their conclusions but
argued that the inexplicable core cases call for continued scientific
study. Examples are the Sturrock panel study of 1998 and the 1970 AIAA
review of the Condon Report.
Religious
UFOs have been interpreted by some groups in a religious way, often influenced by the Theosophical tradition. Some Christians have interpreted UFOs as demonic entities.
UFOs have constituted a widespread international cultural phenomenon since the 1950s. Gallup Polls
rank UFOs near the top of lists for subjects of widespread recognition.
In 1973, a survey found that 95 percent of the public reported having
heard of UFOs, whereas only 92 percent had heard of U.S. PresidentGerald Ford in a 1977 poll taken just nine months after he left the White House.
A 1996 Gallup Poll reported that 71 percent of the United States
population believed the U.S. government was covering up information
regarding UFOs. A 2002 Roper Poll for the Sci-Fi Channel
found similar results, but with more people believing UFOs are
extraterrestrial craft. In that latest poll, 56 percent thought UFOs
were real craft and 48 percent that aliens had visited the Earth. Again,
about 70 percent felt the government was not sharing everything it knew
about UFOs or extraterrestrial life.
The intense secrecy surrounding the secret Nevada base, known as Area 51,
has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central
component of UFO folklore. In July 2019, more than 2 million people
responded to a joke proposal to storm Area 51 which appeared in an anonymous Facebook post.
Two music festivals in rural Nevada, "AlienStock" and "Storm Area 51
Basecamp", were subsequently organized to capitalize on the popularity
of the original Facebook event.
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