Posthuman Blues

UFOs Seen All Over CA

Mars is in close opposition to earth right now, as close as it has been in 60,000 years. The fact that UFO sightings rise during Mars oppositions has been documented by the MUFON Journal. This is one of the few statistically consistent cycles in UFO observation.

This observation provokes several theories, all of them weird. In an earlier era, we might have ascribed increased UFO sightings during Mars oppositions to increased reconnaissance by Martian saucer-pilots. After all, our own Mars missions are slated to take advantage of Mars' close approaches; could the presumed Martians have a similar fixation with economy?

But the reported flight characteristics of UFOs tend to belie a Martian origin. Whatever they are, UFOs consistently defy the brute-force propulsion used to loft our probes (and eventually our astronauts) to other planets; I'd be shocked to discover that an advanced alien civilization living in our immediate solar neighborhood would rely on anything as feeble as rocket technology.




Jacques Vallee


Which leaves the enticing possibility that the intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon wants us to think it's from Mars. If researchers like Jacques Vallee are correct and UFOs are manifestations of a psychosocial conditioning system that antedates history, then we might expect all sorts of misdirection. Indeed, the annals of ufology are filled with accounts of bizarre humanoids divulging their native star systems to flummoxed witnesses. (Betty Hill's encounter with a peculiarly chatty "Gray" included a good look at a "star map," complete with galactic thoroughfares.)