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UFOs A to Z: S.


Click! S-4
Click! Sagan, Carl
cliquez Saint-Louis, 1970, CEIII
cliquez San Diego sightings, 2008
cliquez Sandling Park encounter
Click! Saucerist
Click! Saucermaniac
Click! Saunders, David R., Dr.
Click! Schneider, Phil
Click! Schuessler, John
Click! Schulman, Jack
Click! Selfridge AFB
Click! Sendy, Jean
Click! Sensenbaugher, R.F.
Click! SEPRA
Click! SETI
cliquez SETI, unexplained signals
Click! Shneider, Phil
Click! Shandera, Jaime
Click! Sharanov, Vladimir
Click! Sheaffer, Robert
Click! Sigma
Click! Sign
Click! Sitchin, Zechariah
Click! Smith, Wilbert
Click! Snowbird
Click! SOBEPS
Click! Sociopsychological (thesis)
Click! Spectra
Click! Spencer, John L.
Click! Speyer (foo fighter).
Click! Spitzer, Lyman, Jr.
Click! Sprinkle, Leo
Click! Sputnik
Click! Squyres, Bill
Click! Steiger, Brad
Click! Steiger, Frances Paschal
Click! Stranges, Frank
Click! Stringfield, Leonard.
Click! Subterrene nuclear
Click! Sullivan, Walter
Click! SVP rating
Click! Swamp gas
Click! Sweed, Richard
Click! Swords, Michael
Click! Symmes, John Cleves

S-4

There are three S-4s in the Nevada Test Site (home of Area 51). One is a nuclear reactor, one is an area just south of the Tonopah test range, and one called Papoose Dry Lake Bed, ten miles south of Area 51. It is the latter area that Robert Lazar claims to have worked in.

Sagan, Carl

An American who brought science to the public. He is also a major UFO skeptic believing that no UFO can cross light years of distance due to the large amount of fuel and time needed. This theory assumes that the only method of travel is linear and that the maximum speed of any vehicle must be the speed of light. Robert Lazar has since claimed that an alternative method of travel using gravity waves is what is being used to drive the UFOs. Surprisingly, Sagan used to say that he believed that the Earth was visited by extraterrestrials, but only in the distant past.

San Diego sightings, 2008

On January 1, 2008, in San Diego, California, USA, nine separate lights were spotted moving in an arc formation across the sky at around half past midnight. Around the globe, many people were said to have reported the same exact lights in the sky. A later Fox News San Diego report by anchor Jim Patten showed these lights to be what the descriptions suggested: Chinese lanterns launched for the New Year.

Sandling Park encounter

A group of young people said that on November 16, 1963, in the evening along Sandling road, near Sandling Park, near Hyde, England, they saw a glowing oval of a few meters in diameter hovering above a field, and disappearing behind a clump of trees seconds later. One witness, John Flaxton, said that a dark figure of human size with something that seemed like bat-like wings on the sides but without a head came out from the clump of trees and came stumbling towards them. The young people did not wish to see more of it and fled. The "Saltwood Mystery", as Flying Saucer Review called it, was probably the unique occasion where "mothman" like creature associated with a UFO was reported outside of the Mothman stories around Point Pleasant in the USA around 1966. However, when ufologist Chris Wolfe investigated the case in the 1970's, interviewing the main witness John Flaxton, he thought he found the explanation: there were electric flashing causes by an electric train passing just at the right place in the icy air and the creature might have been just a crow taking a weird and frightening aspect as the train's flashing were behind it.

Saucerist

Person supposed to "believe in the flying saucers." Term which, in the mouth of people introducing themselves as skeptics, tends to ridicule and discredit the person who maintains the opinion that certain reports of UFO sightings are explained as visits of extraterrestrial intelligences.

Saucermaniac

Person supposed to be "obsessed by flying saucers." Term which, in the mouth of people introducing themselves as skeptics, tends to ridicule and discredit the person who maintains the opinion that certain reports of UFO sightings are explained as visits of extraterrestrial intelligences.

Saunders, David R., Dr.

Professor of Psychology fires from the Condon committee for having dared to publicly prove that its so-called scientific study of the UFO problem was actually biased from the start. Dr. Saunders is also the creator of UFOCAT, a computerized database of more than 100.000 UFO sightings.

Schneider, Phil

Former engineer, expert in explosives, who worked to build the underground base at Dulce, NM, according to his claims. It is said he was murdered in January 1996, however it seemed that he just died of a heart attack. He had claimed to have he uploaded 140,000 pages of documentation about UFOs, aliens, and the government cover-up; which I haven't found. He lectured for years about the US Government fighting against the greys and other conspiracies theories, all lacking evidence.

Schuessler, John

Born in 1933, John F. Schuessler has been involved in the US manned space program since 1962 and a UFO researcher since 1965. He is a founding member of the Mutual UFO Network, Inc. (MUFON), is presently the Deputy Director for Administration, a consultant in Astronautics, and a member of the MUFON Board of Directors. As a staff member he has written numerous articles for Skylook and the MUFON UFO Journal. He administers the MUFON Medical Committee, composed of consultants with medical degrees. He is a member of the UFO Research Coalition Board of Directors, a member of the Science Advisory Board for the National Institute for Discovery Science and an Associate of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies. After 36 years of professional activity by McDonnell and Boeing, John Schuessler retired from the aerospace industry, where he was involved in the engineering side of most of the US manned space programs, from Mercury to the space shuttle and the International Space Station. His primary field of interest is the technology of the future. He holds a M.S. degree in Studies of the Future, Technology Forecasting from the University of Houston, Clear Lake. He is the author of the book "UFO-related Human Physiological Effects", 1996, and in 1998, "The Cash-Landrum UFO Incident".

He held positions as Project Manager for Shuttle Flight Operations, Director of Engineering, and Director of General Support. In 1998, he was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal for his leadership of the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory project. He is an Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIM), and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AMS), the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), the Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE), the National Space Society (NSS), the Planetary Society, and the World Future Society. He is a past member of the NASA Johnson Space Center Human Space Flight Awareness Council, University of Texas Department of Aerospace Engineering Industry Visiting Committee, Houston Ellington Field Airport Development Task Force, Clear Lake Area Economic Development Foundation Education Committee, National Contract Management Association, among other.

John Schuessler

Schulman, Jack

An American who said he is the chairman of the American Computers company argues that the transistor could never have been invented so suddenly at AT&T in late 1947 without the input of alien technology. He claims to be persecuted due to his inclusion of extraterrestrial technology in the computers he sells.

Seldridge AFB

USAF base in Michigan where a multiple radar UFO observation occurred on March 3, 1950. Another observation took place on July 3, 1952, and another on July 27, 1952.

Sendy, Jean

Jean Sendy is a French writer and translator, author of esoteric books, as well as books claiming that the bible contains distorted stories extraterrestrial visits.

These books appear in the 1960's in collections such as "L'Aventure Mystérieuse" et "Les Enigmes de l'Univers". In "La Lune, clé de la Bible", in 1968, Sendy launches the myth of the "Elohim which will be used by Claude Vorilhon aka "Rael", as well as a number of UFO books authors: he claimed that the word is a plural, and thus canoot mean god but something like "the Angels", and thus it means extraterrestrials visitors. He then reinterpret the bible as being an historical text telling the colonization of the Earth at the time of Moses by "Angels come from the sky", and says artefacts on the moon will prove that when space exploration finds it.

Sensenbaugher, R.F.

R.F. Sensenbaugher was a dentist from Silver City, New Mexico, USA, who saw a saucer-shaped craft hovering above this city on June 25, 1947, one day after the famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold. He specified that the object was half the size of the full moon.

SEPRA

Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrée Atmosphérique, depending of the French scientific Space Center CNES. First official French government dependant organization in charge of investigatng the UFO phenomenon after the dismissal of the previous organism GEPAN. Some ufologists doubt its efficiency or good will, but in 2005 the director of SEPRA Jean-Jacques Velasco acknowledged that there are now enough physical proof of the reality of the phenomenon, that UFOs are sometimes flying machines beyond our possibilities, and that there is no way to exclude an extra-terrestrial intelligent origin of UFOs in some cases.

SETI

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. This is a US government-funded project that monitors electromagnetic wave emissions from space. These emissions, it is claimed, will be the communications between various UFOs that "leak" out, just like TV pictures from a transmitter are able to be picked up from space (in theory). If they detect any abnormal emissions, they will investigate them further to try and find out where they originate from. UFO researchers are very skeptical of this project, saying it is just a front put up to try and publicly "prove" that UFOs don't exist since they don't expect to find any emissions that cannot be identified. According to an article by Dr. Pierre Guérin in Flying Saucer Review, the government already knows that aliens exist and that they are cooperating with them and that they know that the aliens do not use electromagnetic waves at all. It would be similar to trying to detect Indian smoke signals using a radio receiver. The SETI project was given the order to close down by US Congress in October 1993 due to budget cuts. It later started again on private funds.

SETI unexplained signals

Over the past few decades, many intriguing signals have been picked up by the various SETI programs which are compatible with an artificial origin but remained unidentified. Of these, the most famous is the Wow! signal. Although in the majority of cases, the possibility of interference cannot be ruled out these anomalous sources tend to be concentrated toward the plane of the Milky Way, as would be expected if they were galactic in origin.

Shandera, Jaime:

A TV producer from California interested in UFOs, who became associated with UFO-conspirationnist William Moore and reached fame when he received a film of 8 pages of a so-called secret document apparently written by CIA director Roscoe Hillenkoetter for US President Eisenhover. The document claimed that an alien spaceship and its 4 occupants were found in New Mexico on July 7, 1947, and that a so-called secret groupe of 12 VIPs was formed to handle the case, under the codename "Majestic 12". The document was soon followed by many others in the same inspiration, and several of them proved to be simple forgeries. In opposition to virtually all Roswell specialists, Shandera also claimed that the obvious balloon debris seen on photographs taken in Fort Worth in the process of the Roswell incident are not balloon debris but indeed the real alien spaceship debris.

Sharanov, Vladimir

Professor Vladimir Sharanov is a Russian academic geophysicist from the Leningrad Technological Institute who investigated on the alleged UFO near-crash at Lake Onega of April 27, 1961 witnessed by a group of 25 people. Sharanov personally visited the site with soviet officials. He concluded: "I do not believe that the object was a meteorite. The destruction and uprising of the ground caused by the fall of a meteorite are absent in the case. Specifically, the fall of a meteorite leaves a crater two to five times bigger that its size. In this in case, the crater did not match. The fall of a meteorite comes followed of quickly identifiable sound and visual effects. The case had none of this. Finally, the chemical substances left in the ground by meteorites were not found. The grains found in the depth of the lake, even though still unexplained, were clearly of artificial origin."

Sheaffer, Robert

Born in 1949, Robert Sheaffer is the founder of the "Bay Area Skeptics" in California, and a CSICOP member. He wrote the book "The UFO verdict" in 1991 and "UFO Sightings - The Evidence" in 1998, numerous articles in skeptics magazines and appeared on numerous radio and TV shows where he presents his theory that UFOs do not exist except as hoaxes and misinterpretations of commonplace phenomena. He is also a tenor opera singer and works in informatics. His website is www.debunker.com

Sigma

An ongoing 1954 Top Secret project that looked into how to communicate with aliens. That projects existence was revealed in the project Aquarius Briefing Document and is said to have succeeded in 1964 when a USAF intelligence officer met two other aliens at a prearranged location in a desert in New Mexico. However, there is a "Project Sigma" listed in the 1986 Defence Marketing Services Code Name Directory as a "Top Secret Air Force program involving Rockwell International" and has been officially identified as a laser weapons project.

Sign

The first official USAF UFO investigation that started in January 1948. Its brief was to determine what UFOs were. It lasted until February 1949, its final report saying that 20% of the cases were unexplainable.

Sitchin, Zechariah

Sitchin believes there is a 12th planet orbiting our sun named Nibiru. Nibiru has an orbital period of 3600 years. He believes that giants came from that planet to ours and were called Annukaki in the Sumerian legends, and that they will visit again when the planet comes close to earth again. He says as our solar system orbits closer to the galactic center, our DNA will be activated so we can evolve to higher spiritual beings. He wrote the following books about the subject: "The Twelfth Planet" (1976), "When time began" (1993).

Clay tablet

Sitchin is presented as one of the rare scientists able to translate the writings of clay tablets from ancient Sumer and many other European and Semitic languages past or present, and he has a deep knowledge of the ancient history and archeology of the Middle East. Sitchin is a member of AAAS (American Society for the Advancement of Science), of the AOS (American Oriental Society), the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the Israel Exploration Society. He was awarded Scientist of the Year by the International Forum on New Science in 1996. He graduated from the London University, has a Major in Economy History, and attended the London School of Economics and Political Science.

However, most of his claims, specially those based on ancient texts translations, were debunked by Dr. Michael S. Heiser (www.sitchiniswrong.com).

Wilbert Smith

Wilbert B. Smith was a highly respected scientist who held a Masters degree in electrical engineering as well as several patents. He worked as a senior radio engineer, superintendent of radio regulations engineering with the Canadian Government Department of Transport in the 1950s.

He became a most important figure in the history of UFO studies in Canada when he was officially authorized to spend working time in his "Project Magnet" in December 1950: his idea was to look into magnetic theory relating to UFO propulsion: Smith worked with a series of ionospheric measurement stations across Canada. Part of his research lead him to study geomagnetism as it related to radio waves. He quickly directed its focus to the detection of UFOs, setting up a facility at Shirley's Bay, west of Ottawa.

On one occasion alarms went off to notify that, according to the gravimeter, a UFO had been detected, although it was a foggy day and nothing could have been seen. He reported: "On August 8th, 1954, after eight months of watching flat lines on graph paper, the gravimeter began to twitch and then it went crazy." Project Magnet was discontinued two days later, after the Shirley's Bay story hit papers. Smith went before the House of Commons a year later and reported that the story had been blown out of proportion and that they had not detected a UFO on August 8th, 1954.

He was not convinced yet that UFOs were being piloted by extraterrestrials, however he began making inquiries on UFOs of his own through contacts within the American government. In the late 1950s, Smith submitted a report to his superiors at the Department of Transportation. In it he asserted that through his contacts in Washington, he had discovered that UFOs were the most classified subject in the American Government. Not only that, but that the Americans had indisputable proof that UFOs did in fact exist and were of extraterrestrial origin.

Smith was then promoted in the Department of Transportation and continued his UFO research in private. He apparently started to explain that he was receiving information from the "UFO occupants" and talked of laying the foundation of a "New Science." He died in 1962, still active in UFO research, correspondence, and writing.

Snowbird

An ongoing 1972 Top Secret project that researched, developed and implemented alien spacecraft technology and test flown recovered UFOs. It is possible that the UFO involved in the Cash-Landrum was built by the Americans as part of this project, however another "Project Snowbird" has been found described as a "Joint Army/Air Force peacetime military exercise in the sub-arctic region in 1955" in the 1963 Gale Research's Code Names Dictionary. Project Snowbird is another project that was only revealed in the project Aquarius Briefing Document.

SOBEPS

SOciété Belge d'Etude des Phénomènes Spatiaux, a Belgian private UFO investigation association, disbanded in 2007. SOBEPS illustrated itself when it worked together with the Belgium Air Force during the UFO flap over this country in 1989-1990. See www.sobeps.org.

Sociopsychological thesis

The sociopsychological thesis to explain all UFO sighting reports says that any UFO sighting report up to now and until proof of the contrary is explained as being either a confusion, or an invention. For those UFO sighting reports where this is not well established or not established, the sociopsychological thesis indicates that these cases could not get such an explanation for lack of usable or reliable data, or for lack of sufficient investigation, or by extrinsic factors such as distortions or omissions in the reports by dishonest people or careless investigators. For the existing cases presented as more or less evidence of extraterrestrial visitors, it indicates that the explanation by confusion or hoax is always necessarily better because it considers that extraterrestrial visitors are unlikely or improbable or extraordinary and thus it asks for evidence of a higher weight than those presented, or indicates that these cases must have an explanation as confusion or invention all the same, which was simply not found yet.

Spectra

Parapsychologist and hypnotist Andrija Puharich claimed that Spectra is a kind of supercomputer in which the minds and body of many people are stored. He claimed that his friend Uri Geller received messages from Spectra, or similar sources he called Hoova or Rhombus-4-D, by automatic writing and channeling, and that some of the beings stored in Spectra are shorter than humans and look like "certain exotic types of Japanase people." Puharich also said that Spectra gave Uri Geller his talents of bending spoons by the force of thought. However, Uri Geller distanced him from Puharich's Spectra stories and does not say a word about this in his own autobiography, where only a claimed UFO close encounter story is told.

Spencer, John L.

John Spencer has been a Council member of the British UFO Research Association since 1980 and has written a number of books on UFOs and the Paranormal. Apart from books published in his own right, he has co-edited with Hilary Evans "Phenomenon" and "UFOs 1947-87". He may be contacted at: The Leys, 2c Leyton Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 2TL, U.K.

Speyer (foo fighter)

Towards the end of November 1944, Lt. Henry Giblin, pilot, and Lt. Walter Cleary, radar-observer were flying a P-70 or a Beaufighter or a P-61 near Speyer, Germany, at 1,000 feet altitude when they saw a huge red light 1,000 feet above them, moving at 200 miles per hour. The men thought they had visions or did not dare to look like fools and reported the sighting only after other pilots of that same unit reported several other foo fighters sightings. What the huge red light above them could have been is impossible to say as the case stands now due to lack of data. It does obviously did not fly faster than a plane can, no exotic maneuver is reported, no pursuit, no dogfight, no exotic shape.

Spitzer, Lyman, Jr.

Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1914 - 1997) was an American astrophysicist who wrote about 240 scientific articles, 155 of which he was the main author and 128 published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

He was as shown with this UP dispatch in 1947, the first to have expressed the idea of sending a telescope in Earth orbit. He was an active participant in the Hubble Space Telescope project.

He was also one of the astronomers who first issued ideas such as that extraterrestrials have probably already been on Earth, but that without a large-scale visit, one would not believe the people who would claim to have encountered them.

His name was given to the Spitzer Space Telescope (SIRTF) put in orbit in 2003.

Sprinkle, Leonard B.:

Born in 1930, Leo Sprinkle is a psychotherapist and researcher and also a UFO witness, who earned BA degree in 1952 and MPS degree in 1956 from the University of Colorado. He earned a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Missouri in 1961 and was Professor Emeritus of Counseling Services at the University of Wyoming, when he resigned to go into private practice in 1989. Dr Sprinkle is nationally certified and licensed and a Registrant of Counsel for the National Register of Health Service Providers.

Leo Sprinkle

He became a consultant to APRO, the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization and to the Condon Committee at the University of Colorado. He participated on many panels with scientists such as J. Allen Hynek and Carl Sagan. He set up "The UFO Investigation Conference for Contactees" and participated in the 1968 Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects by the US Congress House Committee on Science and Astronautics. He wrote the book "Soul Samples" in 1999. His address is 105 South 4th Street, Laramie, WY 82070, USA.

He thinks that ufology data give credence to the theory that UFO reports are not all illusions and confusions, and that we are visited by extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations, although hard evidence is missing and the goals and exact origins of these civilizations is still mysterious. He urges that scientific research into the UFO phenomenon must continue.

Sputnik

The first Soviet Satellite Sputnik was launched from Baikonour and circled the Earth, and caused a shock in the Western world on October 4, 1957, as it showed that the Soviets were more advanced than the US in their space program. UFO-Skeptic Martin Kottmeyer and others argue that UFO sightings such as those in Levelland, Texas, November 2, 1957, were caused by Sputnik headlines that caused people to panic and see extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Squyres, Bill

On August 25, 1952, near Pittsburg, Kansas, USA, radio station musician William Squyres saw a dull aluminum saucer shaped object, and through a window in the front section where a blue light shone, he saw the head and shoulders of a character. The mid section had numerous windows through which could be seen some kind of random movement. A series of small propellers were spaced close together along the outer edge of the object, revolving at high speed. The object was hovering about 10' above the ground, 100 yards off the road, with a slight rocking motion. It then ascended vertically with a sound like "a large covey of quail starting to fly at the same time." Vegetation showed signs of having been disturbed under the object.

Steiger, Brad

Brad Steiger was a teacher in literature and creative writing in college levels from 1957 to 1967 and authored as many as 148 books on "paranormal" topics including 22 about UFOs. He thinks UFOs are craft and probes created in our minds via "parapsychic powers" of alien beings originating from "another dimension" that are studying us or maybe even have created us and manipulated us all along.

Steiger, Frances Paschal

Frances Paschal Steiger who was once the wife of UFO books author Brad Steiger, said that she had a spiritual guide named Kihief who was one of the Sar People from Venus and guided her throughout her life. Later she refined the story by claiming that she is herself a reincarnation of Kihief, and that the Venusians like him are otherdimensional counterparts of Earth people on a Venus-like planet. Frances Paschal Steiger also talked about meeting robed like creature like angels since her childhood.

Stranges, Frank

Frank Stranges, Ph.D., is a US evangelist who wrote the book "My Friend from Beyond Earth" in 1960 in which he claimed that he had met in 1959, in the Pentagon where he was "a guest of President Eisenhover" who was an extraterrestrial being from inside of planet Venus named "Valiant Thor" who was on mission on our planet to stop the atom bomb and "help mankind return to the Lord." He said Val Thor had brown wavy hair, was a good-looking gentleman, with brown eyes and a smile that would disarm anybody, and he first told him, "Hello, Frank. How are you?" before starting a 30 minutes theological conversation. Frank's opinion was that he was a member of an unfallen race, "perhaps a race of individuals who were created even before Adam and did not succumb to the temptation as Adam did", and "was not subject to the limitations" that humanity is submitted to. Frank Strange is the President of the National Investigations Committee on UFOs (NICUFOS), Van Nuys, California.

Stringfield, Leonard

Leonard Stringfield (1920-1994) was a pioneer of American ufology and the director of CRIFO (Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects). From 1953 to 1957, he worked in cooperation with the US Air Force, investigating UFO reports, for the Air Defense Command in Columbus, Ohio. For over 30 years Stringfield served in several of the major UFO reports investigation groups in a public relations capacity, such as for the NICAP from 1957 to 1970. He later was board member of the Mutual UFO Network, and regional investigator for the Center for UFO Studies directed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek.

He specialized in investigating the subject of UFO crashes and retrievals reports. The subject of UFO and occupant retrievals report had been considered a "crackpot" topic. Stringfield devoted much time and energy to this topic, and collected numerous confidences of alleged witnesses of such events, generally under the promise that he would not reveal the identity of these witnesses.

He wrote two books to summarize his search; "The UFO Crash-Retrieval Syndrome: Status Report I" in 1980, and "The UFO Crash/Retrievals: Amassing The Evidence - Status Report III", in 1982.

Subterrene nuclear

A machine to bore holes in solid rock, whereby the rock is melted and pushed to the sides of the tunnel, creating the appearance of a glass-lined tunnel. These machines can bore tunnels up to 12 feet high, and up to 5 miles in an hour. These tunnels are often associated with present aliens or ancient aliens. US patents exist for such a machine. A search at the US Patent office yielded patent 5,107,936, invented by Werner Foppe of Denmark. Patent applied for in Nov, 1988, and apparently granted in Apr 1992. Other patents exist also for the US Dept of Energy. This patent entry includes references to this technology in some mining and petroleum magazines. Also patent 4,066,138, for a boring machine made from a high powered laser, applied for in Dec, 1976, for inventors Salisbury and Stiles. Other patents are: US Patent No. 3,693,731, 26 Sep 1972, 2 more patents in May, 1975. Funny, the public patent database only goes back to 1976.

Walter Sullivan

Walter Sullivan is a science reporter at The New York Times newspaper. In 1964, he write the book "We Are Not Alone" in which he interviews astronomers about their opinions on the existence of extraterrestrial civilization. Frank Drake and Carl Sagan tell him that ancient myths of Sumeria and from the Bible should be re-examined for clues on ancient visits of extraterrestrials that might have influenced the development of humanity.

SVP rating

See Vallee Classification System.

Swamp gas

Swamp Gas is the he phenomenon caused by decaying vegetation that has spontaneously ignited, creating a faint glow. It has been used many times both correctly and incorrectly as explanations for some UFO sightings.

Sweed, Richard

In 1959, schoolteacher Richard Sweed of Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, reported to APRO that on October 18, 1927, he watched an object take off from the ground as he was driving from Bakersfield, California, to Yuma, Arizona. When just on the outskirts of Bakersfield he saw the object and apparently got a good look at it. His description matches many of those of UFOs reported since: he said he estimated the object to be about sixty feet in diameter, it had holes or round windows which had protruding metallic or ceramic objects over them which resembled lenses. The craft was of bluish gray metallic color like metal which had been heated and allowed to cool. He described the sound it made as a "whining, humming, wheezing, swooshing" during its smooth and steady acceleration, rising at an angle of 45 degrees. He said that when he arrived at the spot where the object had rested, he found the sand "fused like glass crystals."

Swords, Michael

Michael D. Swords is an American scientist who graduated in 1962 from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. He studied biochemistry at Iowa State University where he earned his M.S., and at Case Western Reserve university where he earned his Ph.D. in 1972. He presently is a professor of natural sciences at Western Michigan University, where he received a Teaching Excellence award in 1978.

Michael Swords conferred at the 1986 symposium on UFOs of MUFON at East Lansing, Michigan, and presented his elements at the TREAT II conferences on abductions in 1990 as well as at the National Association of the Science Teachers in Phoenix in 1989. He authored many papers in ufology dealing with the history of this field of research, amongst other things. While noting a too widespread lack of consistency in ufology, he thinks that there really is a core of sightings which resist any commonplace explanations and that the theory of extraterrestrial visitors is the best to explain them since it does not ask inadequate rejection of the current scientific knowledge.

Michael Sword

Symmes, John Cleves

John Cleves Symmes (1779-1829) was an American eccentric who sought funding for an expedition to enter inside the Earth through holes in the pole; which he claimed to be 4.000 mile wide. He insisted that a benevolent advanced civilization existed inside the Earth. Later, some argued that the UFOs are not extraterrestrial, but come from the subterranean civilization, a wealth of myths appeared around this notion. Ridiculous as it is, there still is a small fraction of the lunatic fringe in ufology that claims that the idea is plausible or even true.

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This page was last updated on July 22, 2017.