Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. — John Adams, 1770
Four Years of UFO Investigations – What We Learned:
An unidentified flying object (UFO), in its strictest sense, is an unfamiliar anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object. Technically, “UFO” refers to something that cannot be identified; unfortunately, in contemporary popular culture, the term has become synonymous with extraterrestrial spacecraft. However, decades of investigations, research, and analysis from a cadre of UFO investigators, including the United States Air Force, have established that most UFO sightings are either hoaxes or misidentifications of man-made terrestrial objects and natural phenomena. Evidence of extraterrestrial life remains elusive as ever.
The lack of physical and scientific proof beyond a reasonable doubt has pushed UFOs to be regarded along with Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, and leprechauns: subjects nestled together in the occult section of your local bookstore or library. This unfortunate occurrence, in my opinion, is a direct result of a once-worthy subject being hijacked by a convergence of armchair UFO investigators, conspiracy theorists, hoaxers, and people taking occasional cheesy photos of alleged extraterrestrials or flying saucers.
In early 2011, in an effort to revive and revolutionize Ufology, we decided to investigative UFO phenomena. First, to clean up Ufology, we needed to remove the extraterrestrial element from the equation and approach the phenomena from a nuts-and-bolts perspective. Second, we needed to create a well-proven investigative process to make sense of the data. Therefore, we developed the Aerial Phenomena Investigations Guide. With our new vision regarding Ufology, we went on to create a new UFO research group made up of like-minded professionals. Our vision, which we knew would get initial pushback from mainstream Ufologists, was to recruit UFO enthusiasts willing to respectively set aside the extraterrestrial hypothesis and approach the phenomena from a nuts-and-bolts perspective.
In the middle of 2011, we began to attend dozens of UFO-related meetings and conferences throughout the United States, specifically in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., areas. As we expected, the premise behind most, if not all, of these UFO meetings and conferences were centered around the following:
- Conspiracies about the alleged Roswell UFO crash.
- Secret “world government” efforts to hide proof of extraterrestrial evidence from the public.
- Occasional hearsay of a deathbed confession from a retired military or intelligence official claiming first-hand knowledge of extraterrestrials.
- Setting aside all known laws of physics to argue for inter-dimensional portals that allow beings from other parts of the universe to travel to our planet at free will.
At none of these UFO meetings or conferences thus far, however, could people provide proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, to substantiate these claims. In the end, we came to realize most, if not all, of these stories were just folklore with an added touch of hysteria and pareidolia.
Today, four years later, the API mission has not changed. Our goals are to conduct a systematic search for facts in order to determine whether or not a UFO sighting or alleged alien abduction can be attributed to a man-made object, natural phenomena, or a hoax. Our team accomplishes this by conducting aggressive investigative research and analysis; then, we assimilate, evaluate, and interpret a variety of reports on aerial phenomena. Throughout every investigation, we consider information derived from all credible sources and integrate it into our analytical process. API sets a high standard to obtain and provide proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that a UFO or an alien abduction is of extraterrestrial origin. After four years of conducting hundreds of thorough UFO investigations, we found no proof of extraterrestrial visitation. Nevertheless, the results of API’s investigations do not mean that extraterrestrial life does not exist or, for that matter, that extraterrestrial life has not visited our planet. We identified most of the UFOs as terrestrial objects, closing very few cases in the “unidentified” file.
