What are YOU talking about when you say UFO?

Alien spaceship? Conventional but misinterpreted phenomena like rocket launches, Chinese lanterns and weather balloons? Nugget of popular culture? Grist of 50's B-movies and science fiction books?

Well this is what I'm talkin' bout, Willis!




I think it's important that we agree on our definitions before we try to have a reasonable conversation on a subject like this.

I believe unidentified = unidentified regardless of what it is.

If I see a UFO it remains a UFO until I , or someone else can identify it. If it turns out ot be an alien craft, then it is no longer a UFO. It is an alien craft.

That's just me though.

reply to post by Orkojoker

Just my thoughts, Orkojoker...

Unidentified Flying Object, is an object which may or may not become identified / misidentified at some point.....

If a UFO remains unidentified, it does'nt mean it is extraterrestrial in nature, just that it is outside our personal knowledge ?

something robotic, probe, drone, but extraterrestrial.

or bioluminescent interdimensional plasma jellyfish?

or even a blackop project from here on Earth, we have some intense technologies.

AN OBJECT or OBJECTS...UN-IDENTIFIED...thats FLYING.

This is a good thread idea, great question. I -know- that ufo means unidentified flying object. So alot of times, I say anomalous ufo. Back in '79 I witnessed a formation of round dim orange things, but they were round, and the size of approximately a penny at arm's length. Those kinds of sightings, and "spaceship"-looking "crafts" with domes on them, I call anomalous ufos.
But I will be thee last person to say they are alien spaceships from other planets. Truth be told, my own belief is they come from this planet (under the oceans, hollow earth, caverns, etc) and have been here with us for at least, this past 26,000 years.

reply to post by Orkojoker


I believe a lot of people here hide behind the Unidentified in UFO when really they really mean Alien spaceship , they just don't want to say it for fear of being proved wrong , you can see it in their answers when you put forward a prosaic explanation to the video or picture posted .

In my view a UFO is an unidentified terrestrial object until it is shown to be otherwise , an Alien spaceship is what was seen over Tehran in 1976 ...probably ... maybe

Yes, I think the most important part is "flying object". The object in question must be flying. A smudge on a camera lense or light reflections are not objects. An object must meet the requirements of an object. The object in question must clearly have (x,y,z) on the 3-D plane when we perceive it. On a image, the object in question must have depth easily perceivable.

I dont think i need to define what flying is except that the object in question must be airborne on (x,y,z) on a 3-D plane.

We have to admit pre 1940s reports are interesting.

I am talking about in the 1890s Texas, it was reported in the paper that witnesses saw a 'flying bail of hay that was on fire.'

When I think of UFO's 3 things come to mind as to what could it be or who made. Military testing, extraterrestial, or atmospheric organisms.

Definitley an Unidentified, Flying, Object! Which it remains until it comes down to Earth and shows us exactly what it is.


The first rule of truly objective research is not to let your own predjudices or beliefs colour your view of something, hence the handy term UFO.

They need new terminology imo. It's difficult to talk interchangeably between unidentified objects, and advanced spacecraft that aren't from around these parts, as it were. It's always been a bit confusing. It's always amusing to hear someone say to something no one has identified "lol.. that's no ufo!" Well.. of course it is.

Glad to get all the replies, folks! I think the neglect of this question leads to a lot of confusion. As is explained in the video in the OP, I like to reserve the term UFO for those phenomena described in the subset of reports which have plenty of detail, reliable witnesses and which have undergone thorough analysis by people who know what they're doing. The key feature common to all of these reports is that they have not yielded a conventional explanation despite investigation. Bottom line is we don't know what they are, but we can be relatively certain of what they are not.

Originally posted by Orkojoker
I like to reserve the term UFO for those phenomena described in the subset of reports which have plenty of detail, reliable witnesses and which have undergone thorough analysis by people who know what they're doing. The key feature common to all of these reports is that they have not yielded a conventional explanation despite investigation. Bottom line is we don't know what they are, but we can be relatively certain of what they are not.

But not enough detail so it can be identified. I would also argue that there is no such thing as a *reliable witness* because human perception is flawed.

reply to post by Orkojoker

My definition of a UFO is an Unidentified Flying Object. It doesnt have to be extraterrestrial origin, just something that we cant identify.

i take it for what it is UFO Unidentified Flying Object, i never understand when someone assumes it means aliens

reply to post by Orkojoker


Great thread mate and excellent work in producing that video - as well as in the clip, Dr Hynek also makes a good point below about the term UFO and the 'mis-interpretation of the phenomenon' taken from his comments at the United Nations on November 27th, 1978 - I also thought Jacques Vallee's comments in the video about ridiculous USAF explanations were pretty spot on.

I refer, of course, to the phenomenon of UFOs... Unidentified Flying Objects... which I should like to define here simply as "any aerial or surface sighting, or instrumental recording (e.g., radar, photography, etc.) which remains unexplained by conventional methods even after competent examination by qualified persons."

You will note, Mr. Chairman, that this definition says nothing about little green men from outer space, or manifestations from spiritual realms, or various psychic manifestations. It simply states an operational definition. A cardinal mistake, and a source of great confusion, has been the almost universal substitution of an interpretation of the UFO phenomenon for the phenomenon itself.

This is akin to having ascribed the Aurora Borealis to angelic communication before we understood the physics of the solar wind.

Nonetheless, in the popular mind the UFO phenomenon is associated with the concept of extra-terrestrial intelligence and this might yet prove to be correct in some context.

link

British Detective Constable Gary Heseltine also makes an interesting point here about genuine UFO characteristics:

"There are some definite flight type characteristics that are seen now that I would say represent genuine UFOs...ie: instant acceleration; instant stop; vertical acceleration -up into the air and down to the ground; reverses in direction; right angle turns -all in silence -multiple objects sometimes separating and then going back into each other.
They are classic,what I would call,genuine UFO characteristics -things that we can not do in a conventional sense."


British Detective Constable Gary Heseltine - Police UFO reporting organisation, PRUFOS

Cheers.

[color=#01BDFE]I call a UFO only an object that defies the behavior of any known aircraft or object in the air and not an object that I personally cannot identify

Example: From time to time I see some orange (flame color) light flying across the horizon then disappearing - I think some meteorite burning in the air,

Example 2: Minutes ago I saw an object of yellow light moving across the horizon with rather slow and constant speed. Unlike commercial airplanes that so far always have a blinking light, this one had none. I thought a satellite or even ISS - I checked where ISS passes at that time - Italy - Egypt - Red Sea - India maybe - etc, not where I am.

Also the object didn't continue till the horizon ends for me, it somehow became fainter and fainter while traveling, then disappeared after becoming faint. Also there are no clouds to make it fainter. I saw it through binoculars as I didn't have time for camera - no military bases around, so

A flare or chinese/whatever other lantern, I still am not sure but I wouldn't call that a UFO, I use that word only for flying things out of the ordinary. One thing I am certain - it was a*YAWN* object, i.e nothing worth the attention.

If others did at least these steps, some of the threads like 'I saw a light, let's post it on YouTube then here' wouldn't be here.

Originally posted by cripmeister

But not enough detail so it can be identified. I would also argue that there is no such thing as a *reliable witness* because human perception is flawed.

That's the one detail that's missing in these interesting cases unfortunately. As far as "reliable" witnesses, I think that term is more useful if we define it as something like "relatively reliable, all things considered", rather than 100% accurate in all perception and judgement. Of course human perception is flawed, but that doesn't necessarily imply that nobody can be trusted to report anything they see reliably - which seems to be the stance of some people on this forum.

Originally posted by karl 12



British Detective Constable Gary Heseltine also makes an interesting point here about genuine UFO characteristics:

"There are some definite flight type characteristics that are seen now that I would say represent genuine UFOs...ie: instant acceleration; instant stop; vertical acceleration -up into the air and down to the ground; reverses in direction; right angle turns -all in silence -multiple objects sometimes separating and then going back into each other.
They are classic,what I would call,genuine UFO characteristics -things that we can not do in a conventional sense."


British Detective Constable Gary Heseltine - Police UFO reporting organisation, PRUFOS

Cheers.

Welcome, karl, and thanks for the reply. The quote you posted is a nice example of why I believe that at least some of the witnesses in these unexplained cases are accurately describing events that actually took place. All of those characteristics have been reported countless times all over the world. It's the strong patterns of appearance and behavior repeated over and over again in various countries that have me convinced of the reality behind these reports.