Hynek's The UFO Experience
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Full title | The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry |
|---|---|
| Author | J. Allen Hynek |
| Published | 1972 (Kirkus release date 1 May 1972) |
| Key ideas | Six-category classification, including the "close encounters"; the Strangeness–Probability rating |
| Theme | A critique of Project Blue Book and a call for serious scientific study |
| Legacy | Named Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); often called the best UFO book written |
| Date | May 1972 |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | J. Allen Hynek |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 74 |
| Year | 1972 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1972 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry is a 1972 book by the astronomer J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's scientific consultant on UFOs for more than twenty years.[1][2] It criticized Project Blue Book and proposed a scientific framework for studying UFO reports. It also introduced the "close encounters" classification, later made famous by Steven Spielberg's film.[1][3] A 2018 review in the Journal of Scientific Exploration called it "perhaps the best UFO book ever written".[3]
Background
Hynek joined the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio State University in 1936. During the Second World War he helped develop the Navy's radio proximity fuze, and he later directed satellite tracking at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1960 he became chairman of astronomy at Northwestern University.[1] The Air Force consulted him on Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book from 1948 to 1969.[1]
He began as a skeptic who expected to explain sightings away. In 1948 he called the subject "utterly ridiculous".[1] He gradually became convinced that a small core of well-documented cases deserved serious scientific attention.[1] According to his biographer Mark O'Connell, his change of view had begun by 1952–53. A quiet poll of 44 astronomers that year found several who had seen UFOs themselves.[3] The 1966 "swamp gas" episode in Michigan set him "irrevocably on his course".[3]
Contents
The book was published by Henry Regnery of Chicago in 1972, with a release date of 1 May.[4] Hynek sorted reports into six categories. Three were for distant sightings:[2][3]
- nocturnal lights
- daylight discs
- radar-visual cases
Three were kinds of "close encounters":[2][3]
- First kind. Sightings at close range.
- Second kind. Encounters with physical effects, such as traces on the ground or interference with vehicles.
- Third kind. Reports of occupants.
He also proposed rating each report on two scales: its "strangeness", and the "probability" that the witnesses were credible. The chart appears on page 27.[3][4] The Journal of Scientific Exploration review credits this system with giving scientists a common language. It notes that the six-category scheme "has dominated the discussion since its first publication in 1972".[3]
The book presented hundreds of cases from police officers, pilots, professors and Boy Scouts. It ended with a plea for an international institute, funding and scientifically trained investigators.[4]
Criticism of Blue Book
Hynek described Blue Book as underfunded, understaffed and more interested in finding explanations than in investigating. He said the scientific problem had been glossed over.[1][5] His specific charges:[1][5]
- The Sleeper letter. The book reprinted his 1968 letter to Col. Raymond Sleeper calling Blue Book's efforts "totally inadequate". Hynek said Sleeper's request was the first time in twenty years he had been officially asked for criticism.
- The nickname. Critics had dubbed Blue Book "The Society for the Explanation of the Uninvestigated".
- The heads. He praised Edward Ruppelt as "honest and seriously puzzled" and Robert Friend for his "dignity and a total lack of the bombast" of other heads. He accused Hector Quintanilla of disregarding "any evidence that was counter to his hypothesis".
- "The master of the possible". He recalled violent arguments with an officer named Moody, who turned a "possible balloon, possible aircraft, possible birds" into "the probable".
He generally portrayed Blue Book's failings as the result of indifference and bureaucracy rather than a deliberate conspiracy, though he acknowledged pressure to play the subject down.[1][5] The pages carrying the reprinted correspondence in the Internet Archive copy are not viewable.[7][8]
Reception
The book received unusually serious attention for a UFO book.[3][4] Kirkus Reviews summed up its message as saying the Air Force had done "one helluva lousy 'pseudo-scientific' job". It found Hynek's argument "heated" and "truculent", a style that "doesn't help his eerie case but might rekindle" interest.[4] A review in Science is reported to have noted the difficulty of discussing the subject responsibly; it was not available for this article. Later reviewers in the Journal of Scientific Exploration called it perhaps the best UFO book ever written. They said it won "surprisingly good reviews in the larger literate community" because of its academic approach and Hynek's standing as an astronomer.[3]
Legacy
The close-encounters scheme gave its name to Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Hynek advised on the film and made a cameo, bearded and with a pipe, as the "mother ship" landed.[1] In 1973 he founded the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois.[1][3] In The Hynek UFO Report (1977), which drew on 12,000 sightings and 140,000 pages of files, he went through Blue Book cases to show how they had been handled.[1][6] With Jacques Vallée he wrote The Edge of Reality (1975), and he co-wrote Night Siege (1987).[1][2]
He died in 1986.[1] A 2016 survey of a Midwestern UFO group found strong recognition of the "close encounter of the third kind". Few members, however, could name all three distant categories or the "Probability" half of his rating scheme.[3]
People and topics
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book — The three successive Air Force UFO investigation projects from 1948 to 1969.
- Close encounter — Hynek's term for a UFO sighting at close range.
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind — Steven Spielberg's 1977 UFO film.
- Center for UFO Studies — The research center founded by J. Allen Hynek in 1973.
On the Timeline
- USS John F. Kennedy encounter (1971) (June/July 1971) — A Navy yeoman says the USS John F. Kennedy's systems failed during a UAP encounter in the Caribbean.
- Project Outgrowth (June 1972) — An Air Force propulsion lab report, Project Outgrowth, examines advanced propulsion ideas.
See every 1972 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- J. Allen Hynek — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
References
- J. Allen Hynek — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry", Anomaly Archives · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Review of The UFO Experience, Journal of Scientific Exploration · journalofscientificexploration.org · archived copy
- "The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry", Kirkus Reviews · kirkusreviews.com · archived copy
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- The Hynek UFO Report (1977) · barnesandnoble.com · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “J. Allen Hynek”, “Project Blue Book”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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