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and physical, to determine whether or not purposeful design is involved in the phenomena the witnesses describe. Whenever a set of unusual circumstances is presented it is in the nature of the human mind to analyze it until a rational pattern is encountered at some level. But it is quite conceivable that nature should present us with circumstances so deeply organized that our observational and logical errors would entirely mask the pattern to be identified. To the scientist, there is nothing surprising in this statement. The history of science consists in dual progress: the refinement of observational techniques and the improvement of analytical methods. On the other hand, the proposition that the universe might contain intelligent creatures exhibiting such an organization that no model of it could be constructed on the basis of current human concepts is also theoretically plausible. The behavior of such beings would necessarily appear random or absurd or would go undetected, especially if these beings possessed physical means of retiring at will beyond the human perceptual range, or into other dimensions. Such physical actions would appear on scientific records as mere random accidents, easily ascribable to instrumental error or to a variety of natural causes. Considering the UFO phenomenon as a special instance of that more fundamental question, we are presented with the dual possibility of very long-term unsolvability and continued manifestation, and this is true whether the phenomenon is natural or artificial in nature. ™ 1 1 , wea wat a ats , 1 woe ori 1 c The development of a new myth feeding upon this duality is entirely predictable. In the absence of a rational solution to the mystery, and due to intense public interest, it is quite likely that in coming years every brand of charlatanism will use it as a base, although it is not possible to predict its exact form. We may very well be living the early years of a new mythological movement, and it may eventually give our technological age its Olympus or its Valhalla, whether we regard such a development as an asset or as a blow to our culture. Because many observations of UFO phenomena appear self-consistent and at the same time irreconcilable with scientific knowledge, a logical vacuum has been created that human imagination tries to fill with fantasy. Such situations have been frequently observed in the past, and they have given us both the highest and the basest forms of religious, poetic, and political activity. It is entirely possible that the UFO phenomenon will give rise to similar developments, because its manifestations coincide with a renewal of interest in the human value of technology. It is precisely because science is the process through which unsolvable emotional arguments can be transformed into organized sets of sub-problems amenable to rational analysis that the UFO phenomenon is interesting. Therefore, to say that UFOs are not a scientific problem, or even to pose the question of whether they are or not, is to utter an absurdity. There is no such thing as a scientific problem; it is the man who looks at the problem who is or is not scientific in his approach. Science is an object in the human mind, not a characteristic we are at liberty either to bestow upon or to withdraw from every funny-looking contraption that happens to cross our skies. For a scientist, the only valid question is to decide whether the phenomenon can be studied by itself, or whether it is an instance of a deeper problem. This book attempts to illustrate, and only to illustrate, the latter approach. And my conclusion is that, through the UFO phenomenon, we have the unique opportunities to observe folklore in the making and to gather scientific material at the deepest source of human imagination. We will be the object of much contempt by future students of our civilization if we allow this material to be lost, for "tradition is a meteor which, once it falls, at tomo If we decide to avoid extreme speculation, but make certain basic observations from the existing data, five principal facts stand out rather clearly from our analysis so far: Fact 1. There has been among the public, in all countries, since the middle of 1946, an extremely active generation of colorful rumors. They center on a considerable number of observations of unknown machines close to the ground in rural areas, the physical traces left by these machines, and their various effects on humans and animals. Fact 2. When the underlying archetypes are extracted from these rumors, the extraterrestrial myth is seen to coincide to a remarkable degree with the fairy-faith of Celtic countries, the observations of the scholars of past ages, and the widespread belief among all peoples concerning entities whose cannot be rekindled."