What People Believe “UFOs” Are In 2023: Four Main Categories

Supposedly taken from the USS Trepang SSN 674 submarine, Atlantic Ocean, in March 1971. It originates from an anonymous source.

The subject of UFOs is one of the most popular topics in the world, and as a result I thought it would be a good idea to provide readers with a summary about the state of ufology today and where most people stand on the topic.

Even after almost 20 years of UFO research, I get confused at what to label Unidentified Flying Objects. That’s because the “official” nomenclature continues to change. Ever since multiple governments have admitted to the phenomenon being real, terms like “Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon” (UAP) and “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon” (also UAP) have made their way into mainstream culture.

But since when does something have to be “official” and acknowledged by governments and big institutions for it to be “legitimate?” This is still an unfortunate reality, but it’s changing as more and more people continue to lose trust in these sources for information.

This brings me to the main point of my article, the state of ufology and how the masses perceive it today.

UFOs are no longer considered a “conspiracy theory” or in the realm of “tin foil hat” wearers as they were approximately a decade ago. Today, there seems to be four main categories of “believers” that encompass the majority of the citizenry. These categories include:

1. The Deep-Divers: Many long time UFO researchers and scholars who have been diving deep into all things that encompass the phenomenon (consciousness, parapsychology, quantum physics, biology, history etc) for many years. These are people who believe the phenomenon is both real and quite old, and mostly originates from some sort of non-human intelligence from either Earth, or some sort of extra-dimensional and/or extraterrestrial origin. Their perspectives are nuanced and welcome all evidence for consideration. They realize the phenomenon is quite vast and the evidence points towards multiple explanations that can all hold a degree of validity.

2. The Newcomers: People who were unaware of the phenomenon and brushed it off as non-legitimate until a plethora of mainstream media articles from the likes of CNN, CBC, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and more started to give more credibility to the subject. This also includes multiple governments admitting the phenomenon is real. This category is mostly made up of people who trust governments and legacy media organizations to provide reasonable and accurate information on a variety of topics, including UFOs.

3. The Agenda People: People who believe the phenomenon is both real and fake in the sense that it is being controlled and perpetuated by governments, or perhaps more powerful people who exercise great control over governments and media. These people believe the phenomenon is a man-made manipulation of some sorts, via real craft that humans built or some sort of advanced holographic technology in order to either stage some sort of invasion/disaster scenario, bring in a “false saviour” or something to progress the planet closer to a New World Order. Generally, these people don’t look deeply into available evidence, or evidence that contradicts what they believe. They are not well researched into the phenomenon, and only seek out perspectives and information that confirms what they believe to be true about UFOs.

4. The Religious Influence: People who believe the phenomenon is real, but that it’s brought on by either demonic or angelic beings. Many of these people are quite religious, and believe a large portion of the phenomenon to be associated with the devil. These people have also not looked deeply into the available evidence, and perhaps rely on religious interpretations of various texts to confirm what they believe.

Of course, there is some overlapping between categories, and people may fall into a mix of multiple categories in small ways. But again, I am distinguishing between these categories because UFOs are a very popular topic these days. I thought it was important to bring light to the current state of ufology and where people are at.

Do you feel one of these numbers represents your view? Or perhaps you are in a completely separate category of your own that’s not listed above? Perhaps you are a combination of numbers. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

My Thoughts on Each Category

1. I definitely belong to this category. I’ve been researching the UFO phenomenon in depth for almost 20 years. Included in those years are a few interesting sightings of my own. Those who are in this category are most likely well researched in categories 2-4 as well, and understand those perspectives and where they come from.
   
   My research into UFOs led to my interest in parapsychology, quantum physics, health, history and more, because it’s all related. I’ve said it many times before, the UFO phenomenon truly leaves no aspect of humanity untouched. I’ve written a plethora of articles on the subject for many years, describing specific military encounters, articles dealing with personal encounters, articles dealing with indigenous lore, UFOs in antiquity (you can read about a few examples here), ancient cultures, and much more.
   
   I find that most long-term researchers are in this category, simply because they have a wide, holistic perspective of all things encompassing the phenomenon. They also welcome nuance. For example, long time researchers understand that sometimes abductions are fake, military related, or staged. While other times they are quite real in the sense that there is no reasonable explanation other than to consider the validity of the experience. Very clear and rigorous, intricate anomalies exist.
   
   Whereas people who may fall into the other categories are more influenced by other factors, like ones beliefs systems, religions etc. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it can produce a limited view of the phenomenon and its evidence.

2. Over the years, we’ve seen exponential growth when it comes to people being interested in UFOs. This is largely due to the fact that it has received large amounts of mainstream attention, and in the past few years the topic has been “legitimized” in mainstream culture.

These are mostly people who are often unaware of the reality of the phenomenon and the amount of evidence that existed prior to it going mainstream. As a result, these people seem to be getting all of their information from what they consider to be “credible” sources, institutions like NASA, and government agencies, like the Department of Defense, for example.

My main concern here is these people are getting their information from the same people who covered-up the phenomenon for decades. Also, information warfare is at an all time high. Big Tech organizations have been active in censoring certain political views, information, science, and evidence that calls into question government measures against COVID, and more.

Governments suddenly claiming that only now will they begin to investigate the UFO phenomenon puts them in a prime position to explain the phenomenon, to relay “new” discoveries to the citizenry. Yet, it’s very obvious that this phenomenon has been investigated for nearly 100 years.

“The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious…The reported operating characteristics such as extreme rates of climb, maneuverability, (particularly in roll), at the actions which must be considered evasive when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar, lend belief to the possibility that some of the objects are controlled either manually, automatically or remotely.”

General Nathan Twining, U.S. Air Force, 1947,

Discoveries made by project Bluebook, for example, the United States Air Force investigation into UFOs from March 1952 to 1969, were not properly relayed to the public. In fact, many UFO researchers believe it was being improperly used to debunk the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

Are we seeing the same process happening today?

Censorship of views, evidence and opinion will not be unique to politics, COVID, and climate change, but will invade many other topics including what we’re seeing happen with the UFO phenomenon. Anybody who has studied ufology and sifted through the evidence and the lore knows that it is an extremely vast topic. What “newbies” are most likely to get from governments and the mainstream is a watered down, sanitized version of disclosure – something that will most likely not be an accurate version of truth representative of a holistic view of the phenomenon.

People in this category would be best to seek out other legitimate sources of information that are not presented within the mainstream.

3. I can understand why so many people are extremely skeptical of anything governments and mainstream media put out. As explained a bit in my point above. I am as well, but I find there to be a glaring lack of critical thinking in this category, but again, I can understand it.

I can understand it because there have been countless examples of lies and manipulation via governments and big media. Whether it be 9/11, the 2016 chemical weapons gas attack in Syria, COVID-19, and various other geopolitical examples, there are always instances where the actual story of what is happening isn’t accurately portrayed to the citizenry. This is why people are losing trust in our institutions at an exponential rate, so much so that one of the key goals of the 2021 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos was rebuilding public trust in institutions.

Furthermore, a massive amount of perception manipulation via propaganda is widely disseminated by these institutions. Events, in my opinion, in many cases have even been completely fabricated and or staged by those who claim to be solving the problem. So, the idea that UFOs would be in the same category is not that far fetched.

But if this is the case, why would governments spend years ridiculing the subject and labelling it as a “conspiracy theory?” Why would they ignore hundreds of credible statements and testimony from say, high ranking whistleblowers for example? Why now do they continue to ignore this testimony and only focus on a select few people and institutions that now seem to be ‘officially’ responsible for designating UFO information to the public?

It seems that the topic of UFOs has become so popular that they need to jump on it again, and provide the explanation.

As we’ve seen with many other topics, real events and phenomena, UFOs could be subjected to perception manipulation by governments. For example, on 9/11 those those towers did fall, and people did die. Our beliefs about what happened however seem to be heavily influenced by a small group of powerful people. Again, in my opinion, UFOs are indeed real, and as pointed out earlier, I believe these same entities are in the process of providing the explanation that will most likely be, in many ways, quite inaccurate and not representative of the bigger picture.

Perhaps, for example we will see a “threat” narrative, despite the fact that this would not be an accurate portrayal of the phenomenon. Or perhaps UFOs will be labelled as foreign adversarial craft.

But to say the phenomenon is completely made up and is part of some sort of psychological warfare operation doesn’t consider that UFOs have been documented for thousands of years. This is evident through artwork from ancient times to antiquity, to when the printing press first arrived, all the way to modern day sightings via photography, witness accounts, radar tracking data and more. You can look at some examples here, towards the end of the article.

The claim ( #3, the idea that the phenomenon is not real and part of an agenda) also lacks proof and evidence, something that is very important when trying to convey a point to the citizenry. It’s fine to have the belief, but how strong is the evidence behind the claim?

This category of people can improve their inquiry by seeking out information that contradicts what they believe, evaluating evidence and not brushing off legitimate information that questions their beliefs as false.

4. As far as the fourth category, it’s hard to have a conversation with people who believe the phenomenon, or some of it, is representative of something demonic. Again, this claim lacks evidence and usually relies on various interpretations of religious texts. This does not mean some interesting stories are not found here, because they are, but based on my research and the plethora of religious and ancient texts out there, plenty of different interpretations exist to choose from, both ‘demonic’ and ‘angelic.’

Furthermore, I believe the ‘angelic’ interpretation probably comes from the fact that tens of thousands of people have claimed to have had ‘contact’ encounters that are benevolent in nature.

This category of people can improve their inquiry by doing the same. Investigating information and legitimate evidence that calls into question what they believe. This is something people in all categories should do, not just with UFOs but with all topics they look in to and are curious about.

The Takeaway

Personally, having researched many cases of all sorts, I believe beings that are not human, wherever many of them are from, are simply another part of the nature of our reality, like whales for example. Giant octopuses, squids and sharks were once considered “sea monsters.”

At the end of the day, I ask myself, if I were a visiter to another world and I made my presence known to the masses, how would I be perceived? If I were visiting a planet like Earth, I probably wouldn’t want to make my presence known en masse, we don’t seem to be ready for that given our tendency to label, judge, criticize and jump to conclusions without proper investigation.