UFO research is usually met with derision on one side, and passionate belief on the other. But in keeping with revolutionary science, it is necessary to be neutral, or zetetic. For the purposes of this article, only data that is consistent with the extraterrestrial hypothesis — i.e., UFOs are spacecraft operated by intelligent beings — will be considered. There are many stories of not just visual sightings, but also physical contact with such aliens.

There must be thousands of contact stories but a cursory search did not reveal any organized body of evidence. We are only interested in physical entities, not any claims about demons or psychic entities. The assumption that such contacts are real, raises many questions. Somehow the aliens have solved these problems.

Navigation

How does a craft navigate in outer space? Everything is moving in relation to each other, so there is no fixed point like the Polestar on earth. Even supposing we could send a craft to Alpha Centauri, how would the crew find their way back to earth? ETs must have solved the problem in some way.

Relativity

As far as we know, it is not possible to surpass the speed of light, and even reaching a fraction of that speed would require large expenditures of energy, more than we can generate. The craft would need to be huge, which brings new problems, e.g., getting bombarded with space dust. There is no reason to doubt the Theory of Relativity, since is has never been empirically refuted. Hence, there are technologically insoluble problems with accelerating a craft to make space travel feasible.

But suppose Relativity is not true, so aliens are not actually limited by the speed of light and the energy required to reach it. That would be good to know.

Human beings

Despite the diverse odd-looking depictions of aliens, they all seem to resemble human beings. They are upright and have sense organisms analogous to ours. It may be that that people, who have claimed contact with aliens, are unable to conceive of any being other than humans. Or it may be that human like qualities are pervasive in the universe, and are necessary to any intelligent beings. These properties may be metaphysical, as we believe, or they may simply be emergent properties of certain material arrangements, as physicalists believe. These are:

• They are material beings, presumably also based on DNA.
• They are alive in a basic sense, as are plants.
• They experience emotions as do animals.
• They have intelligence. Thus, the aliens are rational animals like use; that is what permits fruitful contact between humans and aliens.

If we avoid biological definitions of humans, this all makes sense.

Moral Universe

Whether you believe that the universe is fundamentally moral, as does this site, or that it is a human construct, reported alien contacts involve moral issues. This is necessary for rational animals. There is no point to intelligence, if the intelligent being is unable to choose between the alternatives presented by the intellect.

The motives of the aliens have often been in question, most famously in the Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man. Even the atheist Stephen Hawking was concerned about letting aliens know about our existence because they may have evil intents toward us.

Limits to Intelligence

Aliens may reveal inherent and intractable limits to our intelligence. As a graduate assistant, I had to teach basic algebra to elementary school majors. It was a frustrating experience, because many of the students seemed to be constitutionally unable to learn the topic. I tried explaining in several different ways, but it was futile. Premed students have had to drop out because they could not understand organic chemistry, and business majors often can’t pass an economics class. I am fortunate, because there is no academic subject that I have not been able to learn.

But what if aliens have knowledge the simply exceeds the capacity of our brains. There have been stories of alleged visits of aliens to earth, such as the one described in The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple. But in none of these stories, has anything been taught of much significance. To wit, they haven’t taught unknown physics or cures for all diseases. Nor have they taught the best way to organize societies. You would think that they would have mastered those subjects. Perhaps, we simply cannot grasp what they know, so that we are forever limited in our knowledge.

Theological Issues

Sometimes, people raise theological problems, viz., about the “fall of man”, and how it relates to aliens. There are no difficulties to the esoteric understanding of events. The entire universe is fallen, not just on earth. We would be surprised to discover a civilization of immortal, totally good inhabitants.

Fleshly human beings, understood in the sense described above, are corruptible. The Adam of Eden was in a degree of existence above ours, which is why there was a “fall”.

Sources

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal has provided the following list of UFO research projects. I could not listen to much of them, because they ramble too much and struggle to get to the point. But maybe others will find good material.

Need To Know (with Ross and Zabel)
Alien Girl
That UFO Podcast
Cristina Gomez
Red Panda Koala
GUFON
Thomas Fessler
Truthseekers