The main article in the series High strangeness
High strangeness refers to a global phenomenon so strange and foreign to our daily terrestrial mode of thought, which it carries with it many implications of the existence of intelligences other than our own. It describes UFO cases that are not only peculiar but that can often be utterly absurd. In some cases, there are events before, during, and after the “sighting proper” imbued with elements of time and space distortion, bizarre synchronicities, strange states of consciousness, beings that act absurd, strange “creatures” associated with the sighting, but not necessarily part of the sighting, anomalous phone calls, electronic glitches, paranormal events including poltergeist type activity, and what are popularly known as MIB - Men in Black.
The term “high strangeness” is attributed to Dr. J. Allen Hynek who addressed the United Nations on the subject of UFOs on November 27, 1978 in the following way:
Mr. Chairman, there exists today a world-wide phenomenon… indeed if it were not world-wide I should not be addressing you and these representatives from many parts of the world. There exists a global phenomenon the scope and extent of which is not generally recognized. It is a phenomenon so strange and foreign to our daily terrestrial mode of thought that it is frequently met by ridicule and derision by persons and organizations unacquainted with the facts. […]
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. […]
We have on record many tens of thousands of UFO reports… they include extremely intriguing and provocative accounts of strange events experienced by highly reputable persons… events which challenge our present conception of the world about us and which may indeed signal a need for a change in some of these concepts. […]
Mr. Chairman, any phenomenon which touches the lives of so many people, and which engenders puzzlement and even fear among them, is therefore not only of potential scientific interest and significance but also of sociological and political significance, especially since it carries with it many implications of the existence of intelligences other than our own. […]
Speaking then for myself as an astronomer, and I believe for many of my colleagues as well, there is no longer any question in my mind of the importance of this subject. […]
Mr. Chairman, I have not always held the opinion that UFOs were worthy of serious scientific study. I began my work as Scientific Consultant to the U.S. Air Force as an open skeptic, in the firm belief that we were dealing with a mental aberration and a public nuisance. Only in the face of stubborn facts and data similar to those studied by the French commission… have I been forced to change my opinion.[…]
The UFO phenomenon, as studied by my colleagues and myself, bespeaks the action of some form of intelligence… but whence this intelligence springs, whether it is truly extra-terrestrial, or bespeaks a higher reality not yet recognized by science, or even if it be in some way or another a strange psychic manifestation of our own intelligence, is much the question. We seek your help, Mr. Chairman, in assisting scientists, and particularly those already associated with the many formal and informal investigative organizations around the world, by providing a clearing house procedure whereby the work already going on globally can be brought together in a serious, concentrated approach to this most outstanding challenge to current science.
French scientist, Jacques Vallee writes in a paper about “High Strangeness”:
A primary objection to the reality of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena events among scientists is that witnesses consistently report objects whose seemingly absurd behavior “cannot possibly” be related to actual phenomena, even under extreme conditions. […] Skeptics insist that superior beings, celestial ambassadors or intelligent extraterrestrial (ETI) visitors simply would not perpetrate such antics as are reported in the literature.
All ‘High strangeness’ topics
- Alien abduction (A phenomenon probably as old as history, but which acquired its modern form in the 1960s.)
- Aliens (Various alien types encountered in UFO reports and/or discussed in the Cassiopaean and related material.)
- Cryptogeographic being (Cryptogeographic beings are the huge animated forms that penetrate human consciousness, the supra-human forms that are quite conscious, aware, and active.)
- Men in Black (Men in Black refers to a kind of strange visitor encountered in connection with the UFO phenomenon.)
- UFO phenomenon (A most likely a trans-millennial situation involving interaction with non-human intelligences.)
- Window faller (A Cassiopaean term for various odd animal-like creatures reported throughout history.)