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© Cornelia Kopp
The study of UFOs, for the most part, is concomitant with the alleged presence of intelligent alien life visiting planet Earth. Ever since the late 1940s, when strange and highly-advanced aircraft began to appear that was unrecognizable to a majority of our military institutions in countries around the world, members of the scientific community and intelligence agencies that were bold enough to embrace the serious study of such as-yet unexplained phenomena were forced, partially for lack of any justifiable proof to the contrary, to consider whether some of the UFOs being witnessed might actually represent alien intelligence from other worlds.

Probability, on the other hand, would likely favor a terrestrial origin for the majority of our unexplained aerial phenomenon that remains unaccounted for in any official capacity. After all, while the possibility of alien life does exist, the lack of any physical evidence for this forces those of us bound to the often harsh scrutiny of scientific methodology to accept that in the lack of any such evidence, this may not be the likeliest solution to the UFO problem.

But removing the more obvious notion that many UFOs could be man-made aircraft buzzing around unbeknownst to the majority of us, there still may be other ideas worthy of consideration that, while speculative, could lead to some new understanding of the apparent separation that UFO phenomenon appears content to keep in relation to humankind and our level of awareness regarding UFOs. Thinking along these lines, my friend David Jones, editor of New Dawn Magazine in Australia, recently shared an article with me that explores some of these odd elements of Ufology, and how there almost seems to be an element of "disguise," or even a subtle sense of "practical joking" on part of the intelligence behind some alleged forms of ongoing nonhuman contact (here, we mean specifically the variety that could be associated with UFOs and what we perceive as "aliens"). The piece, titled "Behind the Mask: Aliens or Cosmic Jokers?" was penned by researchers Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince, and is now available for viewing on New Dawn magazine's website:

Behind the Mask: Aliens or Cosmic Jokers?

In their article, the authors touch on the seemingly inextricable association between UFOs and extraterrestrial phenomenon thusly:
"The ETH has become so dominant partly because the Magonian approach challenges our cherished consensus reality so outrageously, whereas the concept of space ships from other planets doesn't. Also, high-profile cases such as Roswell, Area 51 and Majestic 12 - all firmly based on the ET interpretation and centred on government conspiracies and cover-ups - came to dominate Ufology in the 1980s. But paradoxically they derive from the very agencies allegedly behind the conspiracy. In fact, trace any famous case back to its source and you will find that one way or another it originated within the military and intelligence community."
And probing that connection with intelligence agencies, the authors go on later to state a discomforting possibility: that perhaps attitudes linking UFOs and the so-called extraterrestrial hypothesis might actually be encouraged by such agencies. "They want us to think UFOs are extraterrestrial nuts-and-bolts machines," the article says, "and the aliens are flesh-and-blood in order to divert attention from the reality that the real 'aliens' co-exist invisibly with us on the Earth - and are the source of all cases of high strangeness."

This is a unique approach to understanding the phenomenon, since it does not rule out the potential for there being involvement and secrecy by government, but also does not venture to suppose our world governments are actually behind the UFO mystery. But perhaps most important of all, the necessary dichotomy is made between UFOs and extraterrestrials; this, as I outline earlier, is perhaps one of the most necessary elements to furthering our understanding of the phenomenon altogether... especially in the absence of any real tangible evidence - let along solid proof - upon which to base our preconceptions that UFOs, by virtue of remaining unexplained, must therefore be "alien."