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being paralyzed by two occupants of an unknown craft). Sometimes the event was more significant. A number of witnesses, for example, reported perceiving distinct messages inside their heads, a fact they interpreted as an indication of a telepathic ability on the part of the UFO occupants. Still other categories of psychic events are the distortions of time and space reported by witnesses and the apparent violations of physical laws represented by the sudden appearance and disappearance of physical craft. And as we saw in previous chapters, close observers often report something akin to a trip into a parallel time stream. These observations constitute collectively what I call the "psychic component" of the UFO phenomenon. Another aspect of the sightings that I find interesting is the very same aspect that has made scientists from other disciplines turn away in disgust; I am referring to their apparent absurdity. My field of research is the nature of information, its use by people, its transliteration in the form of documents, its application to artificial intelligence, and its representation in the behavior of automata. The techniques of this field can be used for compiling observations, sorting them out, classifying them, and looking for new patterns. A few scientists are pursuing this task in spite of the apparent absurdity of the data. Their work to unravel the UFO enigma centers increasingly on the psychic component of the reports that is indicative either of actual communication with the witness or of direct influence unexplainable by ordinary physical means. In the foothills of the California coastal range, just west of the city of Menlo Park where the Stanford linear accelerator plunges straight under the newly constructed expressway, there is a spot of unusual beauty. It is situated within a mile or so of a densely populated area, yet it gives one a feeling of utter loneliness; the linear accelerator stretches deep into this valley, guarded by wire fences, yet the fields around it have kept a sort of bucolic charm. Where the accelerator ends there is a funnel-shaped depression that is not visible from the road. It is from that depression that a man saw an unusual object rise one evening in February 1972. The man was first attracted to the object by a humming sound it made (let us note once again that humming sounds, buzzing noises, and sounds compared to the swarming of bees are commonly reported as the auditory perception associated with a UFO). He stopped his car, and he and his companion got out. The hum became more distinct as the object came into view. It was glowing red. It flew in a straight line up the hill, as if following the roof of the elongated tunnel. Then it flew down again and was lost from sight in the valley. But not for long. It soon came back into view, and this time it took off, rising very high and very fast as it passed overhead. The two men below saw it clearly: it was somewhat like looking directly at the sun, they said, although contours of the light were sharp. The impression was not like observing a strong projector attached to a flying object; it was more like looking through a window that "opened on the inside of a star." The witness who told me this story mentioned having previously seen unidentified objects. On a certain occasion in Montana he had observed two disk-shaped craft crossing his path, and they had come to hover in a field. He walked toward them and approached within seventy-five feet. He had the intense feeling of being under observation, even at that distance. He used the word "communication." "But how could you tell?" I asked him. "You have mentioned no window, no indication that there was life on these objects." "Have you ever been close to a whale?" the witness asked me, implying that he had the vague feeling that the object somehow was aware of him, as a wild animal is aware of, but appears to ignore, the presence of a person. Over the Accelerator