Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs
Wonders in the Sky
Source entries are currently shown in Spanish; English-first entries arrive with the next cataloguing pass.
Es un catálogo con aparato: quinientos casos de fenómenos aéreos entre la antigüedad y 1879, con la razón de cada inclusión y de cada descarte declarada. Su programa se enuncia en la introducción —«we will examine 500 selected reports of sightings from antiquity to the year 1879» «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 17»— y su método en una tercera parte propia: «we took a different approach: one that is strictly fact-driven, rather than belief-driven» «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 531».
Lo que la vuelve interesante para esta base no es su tesis sino su procedimiento: reconstruye cadenas de transmisión —«Boaistuau drew this story from Lycosthenes, who in turn took it from Fincelius» «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 183»—, taxonomiza los rechazos en cuatro clases «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 424», declara su tasa de descarte «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 556» y advierte que las xilografías se reciclaban de una publicación a otra «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 153».
Y se abstiene de su propia teoría. Ni «control system» ni «interdimensional» ni «another dimension» aparecen: cero páginas cada uno. Lo declaran: escriben «with as little reference as possible to a particular theory» «Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · p. 531».
100 claims · 1 source · 2 attributions
Attribution
recorded, never asserted«Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · pp. 1, 2»
«Vallée y Aubeck — Wonders in the Sky (2010) · pp. 1, 2»
The chain of the work
the processed witness, in emeraldClaims
100 entries — the work's own voice, with its locator«we will examine 500 selected reports of sightings from antiquity to the year 1879, when the industrial revolution deeply changed the nature of human society» — el corte y su razón.
«a period that was entirely free of those modern complications represented by airplanes, dirigibles, rockets» — por qué el catálogo se detiene antes de 1880.
«While we make no claim that any of the events we have uncovered "proves" anything about flying objects from alien worlds, or influence by non-human intelligences, we have emerged with four major observations» — la reserva con que abren sus conclusiones.
«Throughout history, unknown phenomena variously described as prodigies or celestial wonders, have made a major impact on the senses and the imagination of the individuals who witnessed them» — primera observación.
«Every epoch has interpreted the phenomena in its own terms, often in a specific religious or political context» — segunda observación: la capa interpretativa es local.
«The lessons drawn from these ancient cases can be usefully applied to the full range of aerial phenomena that are still reported and remain unexplained by contemporary science» — cuarta observación.
«an unexplained phenomenon has played and continues to play a fantastically important role in shaping our belief systems» — la afirmación de fondo del libro.
«it questioned the simplistic "extraterrestrial" origin of the phenomenon» — así presentan *Passport to Magonia* (1969), y añaden que «the book was based on preliminary data and scanty documentary evidence».
«In selecting cases for inclusion in this Chronology we have paid special attention to such biases in order to steer clear of the suggestion that aerial phenomena intervened directly in terrestrial history» — criterio de sesgo declarado.
«The symbol CD denotes cases whose nature or source, in our opinion, needs new information because it is vague, unreliable, or insufficiently documented» — el único símbolo de cuarentena legible en esta fuente (ver Notas de carga).
«The study of such cases has to begin with the search for a primary source, often a chronicler, a historian, or an astronomer» — regla de partida para lo antiguo.
«in this initial section we have relaxed our selection standards in terms of date and contents, while providing critical comments when appropriate» — declaran haber bajado el estándar en la sección más antigua.
«where to find reliable information that can be further investigated and verified? And (2) how to select suitable material for presentation without biasing the reader towards pre-established conclusions?» — las dos preguntas con que plantean el problema de fuentes.
«we took a different approach: one that is strictly fact-driven, rather than belief-driven» — la declaración de método.
«we were often able to go back to original sources rather than citing popular trade books or contemporary compilations» — su reclamo de remonte a la fuente primaria.
«Early sources are plentiful, sometimes officially certified and verified, detailed and quite distinguished, even in the remote classical era» — sobre la disponibilidad de fuentes clásicas.
«the Annales Maximi that contained these "prodigies" is lost, but it is supposed that Livy, Pliny and Obsequens had access to these annals and drew from them» — consignan la pérdida de la fuente romana raíz.
«These Annals, which were lost even before the time of Livy and Pliny, are now lost.» — Explican la consecuencia: los prodigios romanos llegan datados solo por año, con yuxtaposición de sucesos inconexos.
«if they thought they were witnessing a divine manifestation or a contact with a creature from another world, we cannot censor that information, and indeed it is relevant to the way they color their testimony» — regla de fidelidad al testimonio.
«whenever we could not find compelling evidence to indicate the object was NOT a meteor, a comet or an atmospheric effect, we have generally excluded the case from our Chronology» — criterio de exclusión por defecto.
«Cases that we found, to the best of our estimation, to be fictional or fraudulent were excluded from the main chronology» — regla 1, *Credibility*; algunos quedaron como referencia de fondo en la sección de mitos.
«Cases must have a specific place and time associated with them» — regla 2, *Space and time*: descartan las afirmaciones genéricas sobre luces o tradiciones sin fecha ni lugar.
«We relaxed this rule somewhat for ancient cases and gradually tightened it as one got closer to the present century» — declaran el estándar variable en el tiempo.
«Cases must describe a specific phenomenon in sufficient detail so that common explanations (such as meteors, comets or illusions) can be recognized and excluded» — regla 3, *Description*.
«Cases where witnesses are cited (or, even better, identified by name and function) are given greater weight than general statements about an event» — regla 4, *Witness identification*.
«We have attempted to detect and eliminate hoaxes from our chronology, but we do see such stories as important social indicators rather than spurious narratives» — el fraude como dato, no como basura.
«hoax to be credible to those who hear it, it must fit into the general belief system of the society that surrounds the author of the hoax» — corolario del anterior; la línea trae un número de página incrustado por el OCR y por eso el verbatim arranca aquí (ver Notas de carga).
«For this reason we have made a special effort to track down the sources of the stories we have related, to the extent that the background could be researched» — la consecuencia operativa.
«One of the secret pleasures and rewards of this work has been the study of the various "explanations" given by scholars of every era to dismiss the observations brought to them by common people» — así presentan su interés por la historia de las desestimaciones.
«We excluded most of these cases from our list, keeping only instances where the interaction had a special relevance to the overall phenomenon» — sobre las entidades; y admiten que «This decision may be challenged by our readers».
«we were concerned that, the moment we added superhuman beings by themselves» — el motivo: que todo el catálogo quedara teñido de intencionalidad deliberada.
«No known criteria helps us sort "ufonauts" from other kinds of creatures (such as a mermaid, or a sea serpent) when no aerial phenomenon is present» — el límite que declaran no poder trazar.
«The two authors have had many discussions and occasionally heated debates on this point» — sobre el material bíblico; y añaden «We dislike the idea of portraying aerial phenomena as having selectively aided one religious order or community above others».
«Events that were received within a religious context were better preserved simply because witnesses, priests and monks generally could read and write» — primer sesgo de conservación: es sesgo del registro, no del fenómeno.
«The fact that witnesses perceived transcendent images in the phenomena may be part of the mechanism of the phenomena» — tercer sesgo, y el más fuerte: la percepción trascendente podría ser parte del mecanismo.
«Paintings do not offer valid evidence about the periods they represent» — sobre el arte como fuente; sí dice cómo interpretaba el suceso la sociedad del artista.
«art reveals more about the painter, his (or her) patron and the audience than about the subject itself» — la formulación corta del mismo criterio.
«since pre-1800 texts cannot easily be read by optical character recognition scanning software, the amount of information available to us after 1800 has become mountainous in comparison to older records» — sesgo de digitalización, declarado.
«We are especially lacking in reliable data from Japan, China, and India» — el hueco geográfico que reconocen.
«as authors of this compilation, we have worked with the awareness that we could not escape projecting some of our own beliefs» — autodivulgación en la conclusión: proyectan a través de las selecciones que hicieron.
«We kept approximately one case in five or ten, depending on the period and context» — la tasa de descarte, declarada como cifra.
«the Chronology remains biased across time. We have more information on 19th century incidents than medieval observations» — sesgo temporal admitido.
«In 1552, humanist Conrad Wolffhart (1518-1561), who took the Greek name of Lycosthenes, edited the chronicle and added 36 illustrations from wood-cuts» — el expediente editorial de la fuente que más usan.
«As some of the original text had not survived, Lycosthenes reconstructed the missing parts himself, starting at 749 BC, from other historical sources.» — la advertencia filológica central de la obra.
«Therefore, the records attributed to Obsequens from prior to 190 BC were possibly not in the Latin original.» — el corolario: citar a Obsecuente antes del 190 a.C. es citar la reconstrucción de Lycosthenes.
«Note that this is the last of Lycosthenes' restored cases; all further references from Obsequens' book were also in the original» — marcan dónde termina la interpolación.
«An engraving of the scene accompanies the text in Lycosthenes' edition but there is no guarantee it was made especially for the book because images such as these were recycled from publication to publication» — advertencia sobre el reciclaje de xilografías.
«Boaistuau drew this story from Lycosthenes, who in turn took it from Fincelius. Lycosthenes made an error in the date and location» — cadena de transmisión reconstruida, con el error localizado y una hoja volante de 1550 como control.
«Further research shows that the primary source is historian Philostorgius, in his Ecclesiasticae Historiae (composed in 425 AD)» — remonte desde una revista de 1975 hasta la fuente del siglo V, pasando por Lycosthenes.
«We were unsuccessful in tracking down an original source. We include this quote from a popular magazine with reservations» — reserva declarada caso por caso.
«We have not seen the book and give references from it with reservations» — sobre una fuente japonesa no vista.
«We have looked in vain for an exact reference. Perhaps one of our Japanese readers can research this case further?» — el hueco declarado, con petición de ayuda.
«We have failed to locate an actual quote, so we give this case with reservations» — la misma reserva, otra vez.
«We have been unable to verify the text by Bonifacy, which is only available in manuscript form» — el muro del manuscrito no consultable.
«A writer known to have invented some UFO reports in his time» — sobre Alberto Fenoglio, origen del caso de Alençon (1790), que ellos declaran inexistente.
«The truth of the matter finally came to light in 1975 when Italian researcher Edoardo Russo conducted an investigation into Fenoglio's claims» — Añaden que el caso sigue publicándose de buena fe cada año.
«This is an entirely spurious account» — sobre la carta de Alejandro a Aristóteles: «The Aristotle letter is a known medieval forgery, only famous because Dante mentions it».
«We can only conclude that the claim rests on the veracity of names that cannot be verified today» — cierre de la verificación censal y postal del caso de Jay, Ohio (1858).
«Father Gaspar cites Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas as his source but the story does not appear there» — el cotejo que deshace la fuente declarada.
«disagreed about this case, since it could be considered a ghost story rather than a UFO case» — desacuerdo interno de los coautores consignado dentro del caso mismo; la línea trae un número incrustado por el OCR.
«the two coauthors have had extensive debate over the wisdom of including such cases in this catalogue, especially from sources steeped in myth and symbolism» — el mismo desacuerdo, enunciado como criterio.
«in the process of analysis, we have uncovered many spurious items that cloud the literature of the field. Some of them deserve special documentation» — la razón de ser de la Parte II.
«classified the stories we have rejected from the main chronology, under four major categories» — historia engañosa o fraude, visión religiosa, fenómeno astronómico natural, ilusión óptica o efecto atmosférico.
«we do not feel qualified to judge their relevance to the overall problem» — sobre la visión religiosa como categoría de rechazo.
«a genuine paranormal phenomenon may come to us dressed up as a religious vision» — Por eso «we do not exclude reports purely on such a basis»: la regla y su excepción, en el mismo párrafo.
«we needed to tell the reader why certain well-known incidents had been excluded from our main chronology» — el descarte como parte del entregable.
«our assessment of it is not final» — sobre el material rechazado.
«These reports do not constitute "evidence" for physical visitation by non-human creatures. All we can say is that they are consistent with modern descriptions of unidentified phenomena» — el límite que se ponen en el epílogo de un período.
«led to information spreading more quickly, within a more literate citizenry, so that more reports of unusual events survived» — efecto de la imprenta; y añaden que también difundió desinformación, «just as the Internet does today».
«Publishers shamelessly exploited people's fears by trumpeting strange events, while stories of portents and signs in the sky were cynically invented to support political or religious objectives» — el prodigio como panfleto.
«the official witch-hunter's handbook for nearly two centuries» — sobre el *Malleus Maleficarum*, con la cifra de ediciones que dan: dieciséis en alemán, once en francés, dos en italiano y más de media docena en inglés.
«the issue of physical contact with beings assumed to be demons, a form of interaction the two scholars call "transvection"» — el término del *Malleus* que les interesa.
«five hundred years ago they were debating the exact same issues as ufologists today» — la equiparación de las dos discusiones.
«the 17th century is especially interesting to a researcher of unusual aerial phenomena because it gives us a complete template by which to parse the claims and sightings of today's witnesses» — por qué ese siglo.
«we find continuity between the interpretation of "signs in the sky," aerial objects with entities aboard, and flying or luminous entities seen by themselves» — el criterio de continuidad, que excluye fantasmas, hombres-mono y monstruos como «a related but separate study».
«records stories of abductions by little people (interpreted as "fairies" in Celtic countries, but similar in stature and behavior to today's Aliens)» — cómo describen su propia sección de raptos.
«Lead's ordeals could not be closer to the situation of a modern abductee» — sobre Jane Lead; el contraste con lo bíblico lo hacen ellos mismos en la p. 546.
«most UFO books begin with the blunt affirmation that the "flying saucer era" started on 24 June 1947 when Kenneth Arnold spotted several objects» — la convención que objetan: «This attitude is driven by ideology rather than data».
«this was due more to progress in the publishing and dissemination of news around the world than to a dramatic increase in the actual frequency of incidents» — objetan que el alza decimonónica de reportes sea alza del fenómeno.
«At the other end of the spectrum are the devotees of the Ancient Astronaut theory» — Con ellos, «as the Raelian cult argues», la tesis de que seríamos producto de experimentación extraterrestre.
«We suspect that the data we have compiled in our Chronology indicates the presence of a previously unknown physical element» — su afirmación positiva mínima.
«All these indications converge to support the concept of an unrecognized, physical phenomenon that is relatively rare and unpredictable, but consistent in its general appearance and effects» — la misma, en la conclusión.
«same phenomenon known today under the label "UFO" has existed throughout history, or there is a massive, unrecognized mechanism that generates such imagery and propagates it through human society in all periods and in all cultures» — la disyuntiva final, que dejan abierta: «Either conclusion represents new knowledge».
«If the phenomenon is as old as the Pharaohs, the cover-up must be very sophisticated indeed, and unlike any process of information control in history» — objetan la hipótesis del encubrimiento global.
«the so-called "rational" explanations proposed by academic experts are often as delusionary as the most fanciful reports» — su simetría declarada entre los dos extremos.
«In all periods, we are able to observe the stupidity and the arrogance of such self-styled "rationalist" scholars» — a propósito del Dr. Flamstead de 1715.
«I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?» — declaración de Stephen Hawking citada con fuente y fecha (entrevista para www.ted.com, abril de 2008), que la obra objeta por nombre.
«So much for Stephen Hawking's "cranks and weirdos."» — la respuesta, tras listar a Facius Cardan, Sir H. Sloane, Charles Messier, Cromwell Mortimer, Casanova y Goethe entre los observadores.
«Contrary to common opinion, we are not dealing here with "folklore of obviously uncertain authenticity"» — respuesta nominal a Budd Hopkins, a quien citan dos veces por esa frase.
«Many specialists, such as Jerome Clark, see no indication that the phenomenon existed before the mid-19th century» — objeción nominal a Clark, a quien sin embargo acreditan entre los colaboradores.
«Less cautious or less scholarly writers» — así separan a von Däniken y Sitchin de Kazantsev, Agrest y Aimé Michel, que llaman «Several serious authors»: es una jerarquía de crédito, y es dato.
«with as little reference as possible to a particular theory» — la abstención mayor, declarada por ellos mismos: aquí Vallée no trae su sistema de control ni la hipótesis interdimensional.
«Stories of this kind are being catalogued for a future study but have not been retained in the present work» — se abstienen sobre el ovni estrellado.
«this raises the question of exactly what the Chinese of that era understood by the words we now translate as "dragons"» — se abstienen de cerrar sobre los dragones chinos, aunque proponen tornados para el subconjunto con circunstancias claras.
«Is this all there is? Certainly not!» — se abstienen de la exhaustividad y lo dicen.
«This belongs to J.J. Wick's collection (Wickiana)» — así adjudican la colección de Zúrich, a Wick y no a Gesner (ver Notas de carga).
«preserved in the Wickiana collection of the Central Library in Zurich» — con signatura: «Zurich Zentralbibliothek [ZB PAS II 12:60]», para el pliego de Núremberg de 1561.
«they were men composed, as it were, of air, and subject to birth and death» — lo que declararon los siete comparecientes ante Facius Cardan en Milán, el 13 de agosto de 1491, «When I had completed the customary rites»; vidas de hasta trescientos años y desacuerdo entre ellos sobre la creación del mundo.
«quandam esse regionem, quae dicatur MAGONIA, ex qua naves veniant in nubibus» — el latín de Agobardo de Lyon transcrito por la obra, con su traducción francesa al lado.
«the elves and gnomes of Paracelsian tradition» — única aparición de lo paracelsiano en todo el libro, de paso, en la introducción.
About the work
17 entries — what the apparatus and scholarship say about it«Copyright © 2009 by Chris Aubeck and Documatica Research, LLC» — el copyright NO está a nombre de Vallée como persona; se consigna sin corregir.
La ficha catalográfica de la Library of Congress encabeza «Vallee, Jacques», fecha el registro en 2010 y clasifica la obra bajo objetos volantes no identificados en sus aspectos históricos, psicológicos y religiosos.
«I was thrilled, therefore, to find Jacques Vallee's book, Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers (1969)» — prólogo de David J. Hufford, del Penn State College of Medicine; las pp. 10–15 son enteramente suyas.
«He recognized the difference between the core phenomenology of reports and the local language and interpretations that clothed that core in traditional accounts.» — Hufford sobre el método de *Magonia*, no los autores sobre el suyo.
«Using Vallee's approach I was able to immediately recognize in the Old Hag the "bedroom invader" experience that I had encountered in popular UFO literature» — Hufford sobre su propio trabajo de campo en Terranova y la parálisis del sueño.
«until you strip away the culturally elaborated language and secondary interpretations, leaving "anomalous aerial phenomena."» — Hufford, sobre el método que atribuye a Vallée.
«he implied that he was stripping away layers of cultural elaboration to find the "stable core" of the phenomenon» — Hufford sobre J. Allen Hynek y el gas de pantano, es decir sobre el método de los *debunkers*: el referente es opuesto al de la línea anterior y las dos no se sueldan (ver Notas de carga).
«To do this in an open-ended search for elusive truth without needing to offer a theory of their own is rarest of all» — Hufford sobre la abstención teórica de los autores.
«Julius Obsequens recorded 63 celestial phenomena, Livy 30, Pliny 26, Dio Cassius 14, Cicero 9» — cita en bloque de Raymond W. Drake, en *Flying Saucers* n.º 39 (dic. 1964), reproducida dentro de la sección de fuentes clásicas. Es voz de Drake.
«Mirabilis Annus made clear its political point very early on» — cita de William E. Burns, *An Age of Wonders* (Manchester UP, 2002), introducida en la fuente con «William E. Burns notes:». No es voz de los autores.
«a classical scholar who tracked down and translated for us many hard-to-find references» — así acreditan a Yannis Deliyannis, con posgrado en arqueología por la Sorbona; sus traducciones se adjudican en las pp. 112, 115 y 257.
«has worked for seven years through the Internet to assemble and validate an enormous amount of raw sighting data» — sobre el Proyecto Magoniax, fundado por Aubeck con Rod Brock en 2003.
Los agradecimientos nombran a los colaboradores del grupo: Rod Brock, Jerome Clark y Thomas Bullard (EUA), Mikhail Gershtein (Rusia), Daniel Guenther (Alemania), Eduardo Russo y Giuseppe Stilo (Italia), Javier García Blanco y Jesús Callejo (España), Peter Hassall (Nueva Zelanda) y Fabio Picasso (Argentina).
Coleccionistas previos consultados: Desmond Leslie, Harold Wilkins, Guy Quincy, Aimé Michel, Jean Sider, Godelieve van Overmeire, Michel Bougard, Christiane Piens, Ion Hobana, Lucius Farish, Gordon Creighton, Matthew Hurley, Jean-François Boedec, Claude Maugé y Ron Brinkley; más Franck Marie, con una colección privada de unas 30 000 referencias.
«In addition to the sources and references cited throughout this book, we have found the following works important to verify the reliability of many cases» — encabeza la bibliografía, que por tanto es supletoria: no hay lista consolidada de fuentes, y el aparato vive entero en la línea `Source:` de cada caso.
«many items came to us through the general literature and the Internet with limited documentation about ownership» — nota de derechos que admite procedencia incompleta y pide corrección.
«gathered hundreds of rare documents, scientific reports, and newspaper clippings from the last four hundred years» — paratexto editorial en tercera persona, de la sección «About the Authors», sobre el Proyecto Magoniax. No es voz de los autores (ver Notas de carga).
Concepts treated
Crítica de fuentes (criterios de inclusión y descarte) — Cuatro reglas de inclusión enunciadas —credibilidad, espacio y tiempo, descripción, identificación del testigo— y estándar declaradamente variable en el tiempo
Cadena de transmisión (quién tomó de quién) — Declara la cadena en el aparato cuando es reconstruible — «Boaistuau drew this story from Lycosthenes, who in turn took it from Fincelius» (p. 183) — y también la remonta hacia atrás desde una cita moderna hasta la fuente primaria (p. 463)
Pseudoepigrafe — La carta de Alejandro a Aristóteles, declarada falsificación medieval famosa solo porque Dante la menciona
Daimon (entidad intermedia, ni ángel ni demonio) — Los siete comparecientes ante Facius Cardan se declaran hechos de aire, sujetos a nacimiento y muerte, con vidas de hasta trescientos años
Transvection (el traslado corporal por seres demoníacos) — El término del Malleus Maleficarum para el traslado físico por seres tenidos por demonios
Imaginación (phantasia) — Que el testigo perciba imágenes trascendentes podría ser parte del mecanismo del fenómeno, no solo de su interpretación