UFOs as a psychological phenomenon

Everybody knows UFOs are bunk, you might say.

The UFO phenomenon interests me, not because I believe or want to believe that aliens are real and involved in human affairs, but because there is clearly something happening to make all these people report abductions, all these ex-military staffers report sightings, investigative journalists write books, and so forth.

From a psychological standpoint, the existence of the UFO phenomenon, and people's varied reactions to it, is interesting. As Carl Jung noted:

The problem of the Ufos is, as you rightly say, a very fascinating one, but it is as puzzling as it is fascinating; since, in spite of all observations I know of, there is no certainty about their very nature. On the other side, there is an overwhelming material pointing to their legendary or mythological aspect. As a matter of fact the psychological aspect is so impressive, that one almost must regret that the Ufos seem to be real after all. I have followed up the literature as much as possible and it looks to me as if something were seen and even confirmed by radar, but nobody knows exactly what is seen.

I'm not about to deluge you with links to UFO resources. Good information on the topic is readily available online to anyone with the curiosity, discernment, and ability to push a "search" button who is willing to go fishing for it amongst the deluge of crap that is even more readily available.

Yes, if there is "truth" to these UFO stories it turns everything our tv sets, educators, and governments are telling us about the world on its head.

Yes, there are a lot of loons out there who are UFO truthers.

Still, one can't look at the data and readily dismiss the reams of credible incident reports without lying to oneself or engaging in gross intellectual dishonesty.

 This is why many self-professed "skeptics", it would seem, never bother to look at the data at all.

The mainstream massmind's infantilizing obsession with science fiction and fantasy on the one hand while maintaining rigid, rabid ignorance of this phenomenon strikes me as somewhat dissociative.

I think the implications of there being any substance to this stuff scares the bejesus out of most people, frankly. Especially "religious" people (or more correctly, dogmatic people). Or perhaps the average person is uncomfortable living with uncertainties.

 There's also a really weird social stigma attached to being interested in this stuff, a taint by association that affects one's credibility and perceived intellectual merit.

For this reason I suspect there are many more people who are interested in this than would be apparent from the amount of conversation that takes place on the matter.

Strange that a society so taken with "science" should also be happy to ignore what's right in front of its face. But this goes back to cognitive dissonance, again... people are strongly psychologically motivated to ignore, forget, or hallucinate away data that interferes with their operating belief systems.