An unidentified flying object (UFO), or unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP), is any perceived aerial 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.
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception, spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology.
Ufology is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins. While there are instances of government, private, and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as an example of pseudoscience.
Robert Scott Lazar is an American businessman and conspiracy theorist who claims he was hired in the late 1980s to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology. This work supposedly occurred at a secret site called "S-4", a subsidiary installation allegedly located several kilometers south of the United States Air Force facility popularly known as Area 51.
Robert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman. He owns Budget Suites of America and is the founder of Bigelow Aerospace.
Jacques Fabrice Vallée is an Internet pioneer, computer scientist, venture capitalist, author, ufologist and astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California and Paris, France.
The International UFO Congress is an annual conference established in 1991 in Arizona dedicated to the dissemination of information related to many aspects of ufology. Previously held in Laughlin, Nevada, the conference moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 2011. It features presentations given by authors, researchers, experts, enthusiasts, and those who claim to have witnessed paranormal or anomalous phenomena from all over the world. This week-long event usually has over thirty speakers, a film festival, vendors, and "experiencer" and findings-discussion sessions. Topics generally covered are alien abduction, UFO sightings, UFO crashes, crop circles, paranormal experiences, and government conspiracy. Previous speakers include Richard Dolan, Travis Walton, Yvonne Smith, Kathleen Marden, George Knapp, Jeremy Corbell, David Childress, Kevin Day and Alejandro Rojas among others.
Skinwalker Ranch, also known as Sherman Ranch, is a property of approximately 512 acres (207 ha), located southeast of Ballard, Utah, that is reputed to be the site of paranormal and UFO-related activities. Its name is taken from the skin-walker of Navajo legend concerning vengeful shamans.
Travis Shane Taylor is an American scientist, engineer, science fiction writer, and the star of National Geographic Channel's Rocket City Rednecks which aired 2011–2013. Taylor has written numerous technical papers, science fiction novels, and two textbooks. He has appeared in television documentaries, including NGC's When Aliens Attack and starring as the lead investigator in History Channel's The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.
George T. Knapp is an American television investigative journalist, news anchor, conspiracy theorist, and talk radio host. Knapp's work has been recognized with Edward R. Murrow Awards, Peabody Awards, and twenty-four Pacific Southwest Regional Emmy Awards.
John B. Alexander is a retired United States Army colonel. An infantry officer for much of his career, he is best known as a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons and of military applications of the paranormal. He has written and lectured on UFOs. He characterizes his career as having "evolved from hard-core mercenary to thanatologist". Alexander figures prominently in journalist Jon Ronson's book The Men Who Stare At Goats (2004), which was later made into a Hollywood film starring George Clooney (2009). Ronson continued to draw on Alexander's former status and knowledge in several related Channel 4 documentaries, where Ronson examined the subject of New Age ideas influencing the U.S. military.
The Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE) is a group committed to studying fringe science. The opinions of the organization in regard to what are the proper limits of scientific exploration are often at odds with those of mainstream science. Critics argue that the SSE is devoted to disreputable ideas far outside the scientific mainstream.
The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP) is a United Kingdom-based learned society, education and research charity, dedicated to scientifically investigate alleged paranormal and anomalous phenomena, with a view to approaching the subject in its entirety rather than looking into the psychology of individual phenomenon. They also hold training days for would-be investigators and provide research grants.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was an unclassified but unpublicized investigatory effort funded by the United States Government to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). The program was first made public on December 16, 2017. The program began in 2007, with funding of $22 million over the five years until the available appropriations were ended in 2012. The program began in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
To the Stars... Academy of Arts & Sciences is a San Diego-based company co-founded by Tom DeLonge, guitarist of Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves; Harold E. Puthoff; and Jim Semivan. It is composed of aerospace, science, and entertainment divisions.
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch is a reality television series that follows a team investigating Skinwalker Ranch, located in Uintah County, Utah, United States. The show began airing on the History Channel in March 2020 and to date has run for four seasons.
John Olsen Lear, son of Learjet magnate Bill Lear, was an aviator who set multiple records, later flying cargo planes for the CIA during the Vietnam era.
