In the latter half of the Second World War, pilots from the Royal Air Force reported seeing strange balls of light circling their planes. Unbeknownst to them, members of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force reported similar sightings with each side believing that these were secret weapons that the other side had devised. Drawing from a reference in the popular comic strip of the time, Smokey Stover, the British pilots adopted the term “Foo Fighter” to describe these mysterious aircraft.
In the movie First Contact from the popular Star Trek franchise, the crew of the Enterprise travel back in time to prevent their mortal enemy from distorting the historical timeline. They explain to the pioneer of faster-than-light travel that their planet is being monitored by aliens who are interested in humanity’s progress, waiting for the day when we will join the galactic community.
Every year there are approximately six thousand reported sightings of strange arial phenomena. Most of these can be explained by simple terrestrial activity, such as unidentified air craft, balloons, or even satellites, but there is a significant proportion that have no explanation. In addition, there are several reports of alien abductions by credible claimants; Betty and Barney Hill, in 1961 and Travis Walton in 1975 are two famous examples. Both accounts have had film adaptations featuring notable actors; James Earl Jones in The UFO Incident (1975) – the story of Betty and Barney Hill, and James Garner in Fire in the Sky (1993) – an account of the experiences of Travis Walton.
Alleged abductees also report a phenomenon known as “missing time,” as though their memories have been erased and several hours, or even days, have simply disappeared. However, under hypnosis several of these people are able to recall their experiences. Betty Hill was even able to recall conversations that she had had with her abductors, whom she described as almost friendly; their conversations civil. Following the abduction of Travis Walton, his six coworkers who, reportedly witnessed the abduction, and Walton, himself, were given a polygraph test. In all cases it was determined that they were telling the truth, except in Walton’s case where the result was indeterminate.
Supposedly, during his time on the alien craft, Walton encountered beings whom he described as tall, blonde, and even beautiful, Nordic in appearance. Such creatures were not unknown to the UFO community, the first reported encounter happening as early as the 1950s. These beings have since become known as Nordic Aliens.
While the Travis Walton case has often been disregarded as a hoax, the fact remains that UFO sightings are fairly common and, with the advent of phone cameras, more and more of these strange sightings are being recorded. To be clear, a UFO is not necessarily of extraterrestrial origin. People see UFOs every day. They see objects which are flying that they cannot identify. This, by its strict definition, is a UFO; an Unidentified Flying Object – probably Earthly in origin and not little green (or grey) men from outer space.
On the other hand, if one were to stretch the imagination, and perceive the situation from the point of view of one of the Vulcans in Star Trek, then there is a certain degree of sense in the recent (meaning since the start of the last century) number of UFO sightings. The Second World War was the most devastating conflict the world has ever known, so it makes sense that an alien race, watching our planet, would be interested in knowing exactly what was going on down here, perhaps even sending probes to monitor the situation, culminating in reports of Foo Fighters.
If this were true then alien interest almost certainly would have been piqued by the development of atomic weapons, the detonation of which is easily discernable from space. It could even be argued that these alien observers were trying to determine if humanity is a threat to them, just as Project Blue Book, the official study of the UFO phenomenon conducted from 1952 to 1969 by the United States Air Force, was trying to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security.
The question that then arises is: with the immense size of the galaxy, and the vast number of galaxies in the known Universe, why would anyone be interested in us? Is it human arrogance to believe we are so special that aliens are interested in us? The Church counters this line of thinking and, indeed, believes the opposite; that the view that we are so unspecial is, in itself, the arrogant standpoint; a sort of inverted snobbery.
Then, of course, there is question of the vast size of the Universe, and even our own galaxy. How would alien beings even find us? In 1990 the Hubble Space Telescope was launched and was the first to confirm the existence of so-called exoplanets – planets that are in orbit around other stars. Since then, the almost six thousand exoplanets have been discovered. Most of these are unsuitable for life; they are either too large, too far from their host star or too close. Only around one percent of exoplanets have been found in the habitable region, colloquially referred to as the Goldilocks Zone, neither too hot nor too cold.
Following her alleged abduction, and with the aid of hypnosis, Betty Hill drew a star map that she claimed her abductors had shown her which, they explained, showed where they had come from. Later, a school teacher by the name of Marjorie Fish interpreted the map drawn by Betty Hill and determined that the star system of origin in question was likely to be the binary star system known as Zeta Reticuli, some forty or so light years from Earth. This is incredibly close, in celestial terms, just up the street, so to speak.
Of course, many question the accuracy of Fish’s interpretation, and no potentially habitable planets (or any planets) have yet been found to be orbiting the Zeta Reticuli star system. That, however, does not detract from a simple point – that any potential alien visitors are much more likely to look for life close to their home world, and the question of why they would look at all is answered very simply: because we are. It is not unreasonable to suggest that they are as curious about the question of whether or not they are alone in the Universe.
And why would they actually visit us? Imagine, for a moment, that you are trapped on a desert island. You can see many other islands, some look hospitable, others not so. Some have massive volcanic activity, some are swept by arctic winds and some are barren. However, there are a couple that are lush with vegetation, and you may even see an animal or two. You can only go a certain distance. Which are you most likely to go to? Undoubtedly, you would want to go to the nearest one that has life. And, so it is with our alien galactic cohabitants. They are interested in Earth because it is the nearest habitable planet – only forty light years away. Since their “Foo Fighters” (somewhat of a misnomer as there were no reports of them engaging Allied or Axis aircraft) reported a major war on our planet and, perhaps even armed with the knowledge that there has been no time in recorded history completely devoid of conflict, our alien friends would naturally be curious if we are inherently hostile, which would explain their standoffishness.
In his seminal work The War of the Worlds, British author H.G. Wells postulated an alien race that viewed humanity, not just with contempt, but with a superior apathy. In several places in the book he likens the Martian invaders as viewing humans much as humans view the lower animals; not necessarily with malicious intent, but with opportunistic indifference. Given that humanity has progressed consistently in the peace process from our barbaric ancient ancestors, this is a valid viewpoint to explain the mistreatment reported by some abductees. They aren’t necessarily cruel, but curious, and disregard the self-purported rights of the human race because we are inferior. However, The Church doesn’t subscribe to this theory on the grounds that we, as a race, have become more antipathetic towards animal cruelty. It is a slow process, and not universal, yet it is one that exists.
If (and this is a big “if”) the Foo Fighters were indeed alien probes, then the information that they could glean would be limited, as would the data received from the occasional abduction; it may tell them where our physical heart is, but not our psychological heart. In order for an alien race to truly understand humanity they would be required to infiltrate the populace, and that would necessitate them actual intermingling with our society.
The most commonly reported alien has been designated the “Gray Alien”. These creatures are reported as being short in stature, have large heads with disproportionately huge, black, almond shaped eyes. They are devoid of hair, some accounts report them as having six fingers on each hand, with greyish green skin. This is the kind of alien reported by Betty and Barney Hill, Travis Walton and Whitley Strieber; another self-proclaimed alien abductee whose 1987 book “Communion”, which related his experiences, became a best-seller. In the 1989 film adaptation of the same name, Strieber was portrayed by another reputable actor, Christopher Walken.
Another commonly reported alien type is the Reptilian. These creatures are as their name suggests, scaley and green with vertical slit pupils. They have tails and, presumably, evolved from lizards, or some other reptilian species. It is a narrow-minded viewpoint to assume that all intelligent species in the universe evolved from simian origins as it did here on Earth.
However, if one were in one’s local coffee shop and either one of the creatures walked in, it would certainly attract attention, even trepidation and outright fear. Our alien friends know that we can be hostile from their observations made during the wars, therefore, they would be unlikely to approach humanity in this manner; who is to say that they don’t experience fear as we do as it is one of the most primal emotions necessary for the perpetuation of the species and eventual evolution. In order for an alien species to infiltrate humanity they would have to look like humans so that they could comingle, just as the British Secret Service sought out spies who were fluent in German to infiltrate the Third Reich (mostly Jewish German refugees) during World War II. Travis Walton’s Nordic Aliens would be custom made for the job. In fact, Walton recounts that he had actually mistaken these beings as humans who had foisted themselves onto the alien craft.
What is the likelihood that there are creatures in our universe, or even our galaxy, that are, not only advanced enough to form a civilized society, but capable of traversing the vast, unimaginable depths of space? First of all, while modern science discounts the possibility of faster-than-light travel (quantum entanglement not withstanding) that isn’t to say that interstellar travel is completely impossible. It may well be, however, there are many advances made in science that were formerly considered ridiculous, and that we take for granted, today – the heliocentric view of the solar system, microbial organisms and continental drift, to name but a few.
Secondly, one needn’t guess at the probability of life evolving on other planets. That calculation has already been done. In 1961 Frank Drake, an American astrophysicist devised a formula to calculate the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy that could potentially be communicative. The equation itself is not particularly complicated and takes into account such factors as the number of planets which could harbor life, the number of those which go on to form civilizations and the number of those which could announce their existence, along with distances, stellar aging and a few other things. This formula has since become known as The Drake Equation, and it suggests, depending on values used for the variables that are imprecise and open to conjecture, that, according to Drake’s original calculation, that there are twenty advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. Other calculations posit that there could be as many as fifteen million. Variables which calculate a probability of zero (that we are alone in the galaxy) are so infinitesimally small as to completely discount the idea.
So, we are almost definitely not alone. The upshot of this is the answer to how The International Church of Solipology views the alien phenomenon, and the answer is, we don’t disbelieve it. We don’t take every alien account as gospel, nor do we discount every one as lunacy. As is the core of the philosophy of Solipsology, the answer is empathy – empathy for the witnesses, empathy for their motives, and empathy towards the motives of potential alien visitors – and to keep an open mind.
