The Alien Reports We Have

In this article, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos examines the nature of UFO and extraterrestrial encounter reports, arguing that the vast majority of these accounts are either fabrications or the result of psychological phenomena. The author notes that while many researchers focus on the details of sightings, the core of the UFO phenomenon lies in 'close encounters' involving landings and humanoids. He contends that these reports are fundamentally unreliable because they are typically one-witness cases lacking physical evidence. Ballester Olmos posits that if these events were genuine, they would be treated with greater scientific and governmental urgency. Instead, he suggests that the lack of physical proof—such as hardware or artifacts—after 70 years of reports indicates that these events do not occur in the physical world. He categorizes these experiences as either conscious deceptions or psychological states, such as hallucinations or false memories, and calls for a more rigorous psychological approach to understanding why these narratives persist. The author rejects the theory that UFO encounters are a modern evolution of religious or transcendent experiences, noting that UFO narratives are characterized by specific, physical, and well-defined details that distinguish them from traditional religious miracles or apparitions. Ultimately, the author concludes that the study of these cases belongs to the field of psychology, as they represent immaterial, groundless accounts that have failed to produce any verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial contact.