The Myth and Mystery of UFOs

«A psychosocial idea is the premise of this book: UFOs—as we think of them, understand them, find meaning in them—owe most of their public character to a cultural version, to what human belief puts into them rather than to what observation or scientific study reveals.» — la premisa, nombrada por su nombre.

«An orientation toward cultural aspects means this book is less about sights in the sky or the people who see them than about the thoughts and expressions that represent UFOs» — declara su objeto.

«it emphasizes collective knowledge, the accounts, beliefs, theories, speculations, and imaginings that comprise the ufological literature» — la unidad de análisis es el corpus, no el individuo.

«Such an approach runs counter to the goal of ufology to understand the phenomenon and also to current research practices into narrative behavior that concentrate on individual and interpersonal processes rather than the isolated product.» — admite ir a contrapelo de su propia disciplina.

«A conviction underlies this book that comparative study of long-running cultural themes and patterns reveals an important shaping influence on the way people think and talk about UFOs.» — su justificación.

«this book will maintain another, equally important premise—that individual, social, and cultural factors do not tell the whole story, and this story requires an experience with properties of its own for completion.» — el límite que le pone a la premisa anterior, en la página siguiente.

«A narrow approach that sees only human influences or only nuts-and-bolts spaceships loses sight of the problem as an interlocking whole.» — la frase con que justifica no fundir las lecturas.

«UFO information comes with a caveat—various sorts of human intervention always mediate the truth of this information.» — regla de procedencia aplicable a cualquier cita.

«Anthropology, psychology, religious studies, and especially folklore scholarship will prove useful.» — declara de qué disciplinas toma el marco.

«This scholarship into the dynamics of traditional narratives, their processes of variation, disputation, stereotypical ordering, and inclusion of fantastic elements, provides a useful framework of understanding for UFO accounts.» — Qué les pide exactamente.

«Comparison of UFO stories with types of narratives not directly associated with UFOs can reveal continuities of human thinking, but useful indications must consist of significant patterns rather than mere isolated likenesses.» — el umbral que se impone para no ver parecidos donde no los hay.

«If the same themes form similar complex patterns in various contexts with different content, this recurrence betrays a cultural origin.» — su regla de inferencia.

«This book will attempt to show that these patterns are not just afterthoughts attached to a factual base but active organizing principles, cultural tools of thought that reshape observational facts to conform to established meanings.» — los patrones no son adorno.

«Few individuals are likely to subscribe to all the elements of popular ufology, but its broad scope prescribes the content of the field without value judgments» — adopta la *ufología popular* por criterio documental, no valorativo.

«delineating the popular trends of the field requires only consultations of its literature as a matter of record» — la razón: es definible en términos objetivos.

«One of the most valuable barometers of the state of affairs in ufology is the annual symposium of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).» — nombra su barómetro documental, con cuarenta años de actas.

«This identity does not pass judgment on the reality of the phenomenon but proposes that UFO thinking follows a distinctive strategy for the construction of understanding» — desactiva por adelantado la lectura peyorativa de *mito*.

«The term to recognize this entirety is “myth,” even though for many reasons—overuse, banality, multiple definitions, and pejorative connotations, among others—it is in many ways a regrettable choice; yet no alternative will serve half as well.» — reconoce la incomodidad del término antes de definirlo.

«A dictionary-style definition identifies myth as a traditional genre of sacred narratives that explains origins of the cosmos, mankind, and the moral order.» — la definición heredada que expone.

«shifts from myth as textual product to myth as social process, from a story that satisfies curiosity to a master plan for living» — el desplazamiento funcionalista del centro de gravedad.

«A myth is, at heart, a narrative text about events.» — atributo 1.

«As a mode of expression myth exchanges an idiosyncratic for a collective representation.» — atributo 2.

«making myth is creative, artistic work rather than a reporter's job» — corolario del atributo 2.

«Myths function to create meanings, express values, and serve social or personal needs.» — atributo 3.

«Myths grow by association of ideas and tend toward inclusiveness, where scientific theory excludes any term not connected by causation» — atributo 4: describe cómo crece un corpus.

«The primary texts about events and the secondary texts of interpretation interconnect to form a system of knowledge.» — la trabazón entre relato e interpretación.

«A mythic system tends toward a wholeness of meanings—that is, the system comes to represent a possible world so dense and well integrated with its own facts and truths that they become self-referencing» — el estado final del sistema.

«In creating a belief world, mythmaking sacrifices some part of literal truth for a more coherent and desirable fiction.» — atributo 5, con la figura del diamante que sigue.

«Mere facts are real but not necessarily important, while the fictions of myth are better» — Añade que se las ha llamado «realer than real», falsas a la verdad literal pero fieles al mundo que debería ser.

«The subject matter is not necessarily false—after all, the Titanic disaster really happened—but something is usually suspect about the treatment.» — atributo 6.

«If similar elements turn up in historical, news, or experiential accounts, good reason exists to question the literal accuracy of these accounts.» — criterio de sospecha aplicable a cualquier relato.

«One inescapable property of myth is that it is “only a myth” to someone, and if that “someone” speaks with the authoritative voice of science, any opposing claim about the natural world holds the official status of an untruth.» — atributo 7: el estatus disputado.

«But a subject like UFOs remains mythic so long as its truth status depends on social negotiations rather than incontrovertible proof» — la condición de permanencia del carácter mítico.

«It has the stiffness of abstract language, whereas myth flows with the ease of vernacular, an everyday language akin to the bricolage of Lévi-Strauss» — contrapone las dos maneras de pensar.

«Mythic thinking favors analogy, metaphor, and magical causation to associate ideas that by stricter standards seem unrelated.» — cómo asocia el pensamiento mítico.

«Folklorist Stith Thompson's Motif Index of Folk Literature catalogs the minimal basic units that persist in tradition and manifest some unusual or striking quality» — adjudica a Stith Thompson la unidad de análisis, el motivo.

«Certain narrative types recur as fundamental or simple forms (einfache Formen), structural containers for human expression with similar narrative patterns and social functions.» — la forma simple; la nota adjudica el término a Kurt Ranke.

«One such form is the legend, a narrative that centers on the events that befall people in stories often concerned with inexplicable occurrences or supernatural confrontations.» — definición de leyenda.

«the narrative casts protagonists as victims rather than heroes, ordinary people going about ordinary business when some out-of-the-ordinary occurrence threatens them» — lo que distingue la leyenda del cuento heroico.

«The legend universe is often amoral, the occupants not punished for any crime or sin but simply unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time» — el universo de la leyenda no reparte castigos.

«that element of a brush with the inexplicable, that transgression of boundaries when the extranormal breaks momentarily into the everyday world» — lo que sobrevive incluso en el avistamiento simple.

«belief starts, at least in theory, with a firsthand account or memorate.» — el primer eslabón de la transmisión.

«The hypothetical future of the initial report is successive retelling by others until it becomes a third-person, friend-of-a-friend legend, or fabulate» — el segundo: la fabulata.

«this straightforward lineage grows tangled as narrators appropriate the third-person story and recast it as a first-person experience» — advierte que el linaje se ensucia.

«In the 1920s Cambridge psychologist Frederic C. Bartlett experimented with the transmission of American Indian narratives» — adjudica a Bartlett el experimento fundacional.

«Bartlett proposed that subjects altered the text to suit their established schemata of understanding in a sacrifice of accuracy to gain coherence and meaning» — los esquemas, sacrificando exactitud por coherencia.

«repeated transmission led to leveling, the concentration of accounts into more concise form; sharpening, a selective emphasis on limited details; and assimilation, the shaping of the message into a form consistent with the presuppositions of the tellers» — las tres deformaciones, tomadas de los estudios sociológicos del rumor.

«Linda Dégh describes legend transmission as a self-organizing system based on a process of natural selection.» — adjudica el modelo de transmisión a Dégh, folclorista de Indiana University; la frase arranca al pie de la p. 310.

«A conduit of believers takes shape as people preserve and transmit the believers' version over time and space.» — el conducto; y el escéptico se forma igual.

«Such confrontations stake out social boundaries between “us” and “them” and promote solidarity within the opposing factions.» — el corolario social del conducto.

«Uncertainty provides the necessary medium for stories of extranormal experience, a state of intellectual disequilibrium that assures controversy as long as people continue to disagree over a claim.» — la incertidumbre como medio, adjudicado a Dégh.

«explained it in terms of transmission—that similarities happen because narrators borrow from one another—or polygenesis—that comparable stories arise independently out of the psychic unity of mankind» — los dos modelos clásicos del folclore.

«theories of polygenesis work more credibly for larger issues of consistency than for the small details» — su reparto de competencias entre los dos.

«Legend is the loose-lipped drunkard of folk narratives.» — la formulación memorable de la variación.

«Around its core idea reels a swarm of variants, each a part of the legend and no one of them any more the “true” version than any other.» — ninguna variante es más verdadera que otra.

«the legend reveals itself not as a specific text but what Bill Ellis, Pennsylvania State University professor of English and American Studies, calls “a social impetus to create new narratives in the shape of the old.”» — adjudica a Ellis la leyenda como impulso, no como texto.

«A notion of cultural script is misleading, since it implies that a story is written down for actors to read verbatim.» — objeta la metáfora del guion cultural, que es el argumento psicosocial estándar.

«The performers are more likely to ad lib their lines with more attention to personal preference and creative license than fidelity to an ideal version.» — Propone el modelo alternativo.

«The garrulous nature of legends, their socially motivated and inevitable multiplicity, heaps doubt on the truthfulness of their truth claims and confirms variation as so characteristic of their kind that unless a truth-claiming narrative varies, it probably is not folklore.» — el criterio de demarcación, y la frase más útil del libro para este corpus.

«Why would stories that depend on cultural sources and fantasy without a factual anchor nevertheless display the inhibition apparent in UFO reports?» — el argumento invertido, que es su aporte propio.

«A taleteller faces opportunities for creative freedom, not the ball and chain of obligatory compliance.» — la premisa del argumento anterior.

«In contrast to accounts of satanic ritual abuse, abduction reports repeat one another to the point of monotony.» — la contraprueba que usa: el abuso ritual satánico sí varía.

«The devil inspires an individualistic relationship, whereas encounters with aliens are impersonal and rigid» — la diferencia entre los dos corpus.

«When multiple narrators adhere to a supposed script down to the obscure details, that same invariance is a clue that they cling to firmer ground than cultural ideas can provide.» — la conclusión que extrae de la ausencia de variación.

«Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko voiced the standard response of his field when he attributed experiential claims to a subjective combination of psychology and tradition.» — expone la hipótesis de la fuente cultural que su libro va a matizar.

«this conclusion belongs to what folklorist David Hufford terms a ‘tradition of disbelief,” where a negative belief comes to appear true simply by being repeated often enough.» — adjudica a Hufford la «terms a ‘tradition of disbelief»; las comillas mezcladas son de la capa de texto.

«The evidence made a compelling case that tradition does not always give rise to experience; rather experience sometimes returns the favor and gives rise to tradition.» — el giro de Hufford: la inversión de la dirección causal.

«a fundamental reason that spiritual beliefs have been able to resist the enormous social pressures toward secularization is that they are, in part, rationally founded on experience (that is, empirically grounded).» — cita textual de Hufford, no de Bullard.

«He broke with folklorists' accepted emphasis on cultural acquisition and proposed an experience-centered approach to understand experiential claims from the standpoint of the claimants.» — consigna la ruptura disciplinar de Hufford.

«As much as one-fourth of the population may undergo the experience at least once in a lifetime.» — la cifra de Hufford sobre la Old Hag.

«Hufford generalized supernatural assault accounts under the term of “Mara attack”» — la categoría con que Hufford generaliza.

«As William James argued in 1902, volumes of theological reasoning or abstract understanding of natural order does little to create religious faith; rather it grows from the bottom up out of individual religious experiences and their resultant feelings and intuitions.» — adjudica a James el mismo movimiento en estudios de religión.

«Pennsylvania State University-College of Medicine professor James McClenon has researched anomalous experiences around the world and found considerable cross-cultural similarity in their reported phenomenology.» — A McClenon los «wondrous events».

«Folklorists and other scholars have long recognized that stereotypical formulations rewrite the life histories of saints, heroic leaders, and wonderworkers.» — la generalización de la que parte.

«In The Myth of the Magus, Cambridge professor of German E. M. Butler delineated a distinctive biographical pattern for the sage or magician.» — adjudica el patrón a E. M. Butler.

«The magus has a supernatural or mysterious origin and a birth announced by signs.» — primera estación del patrón.

«Perils menace his infancy, while he later undergoes an initiation and undertakes a faraway journey. He engages in a magical contest and then may face a trial or persecution, leading to a farewell scene before a violent or mysterious death followed by resurrection or ascension.» — el patrón completo.

«Butler applied this formula to the lives of Zoroaster, Moses, Solomon, Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana, Simon Magus, Christ, Merlin, and Doctor Faust,» — la lista a la que Butler lo aplica, que es casi entera nuestro corpus.

«The occultist Margaret Storm preserved supernatural implications of the magus with modern equivalents by identifying Tesla as a visitor from Venus in her book Return of the Dove (1959).» — la vigencia moderna del patrón, con el caso Tesla.

«Nothing like credible evidence supports these fantasies, but they attest to the extraordinary potentials for legend formation inherent in Tesla's extraordinary life.» — su lectura del expediente Tesla, en verbo de decir.

«again and again they assumed the archetypal shape of the hero's journey of initiation, moving from symbolic death to transformation and rebirth» — sobre el relato de cautiverio indio de los siglos XVII a XIX.

«Two scholarly articles identify UFO abduction narratives as the latest incarnation of the pattern.» — consigna la adjudicación sin firmarla él.

«The Prodigy Tradition.— Historical literature of ancient, medieval, and Reformation times attributed anything strange in the sky, anything remarkable on land or sea, to a divine message for mankind.» — nombra la tradición del prodigio.

«The Romans' broadest term for such events was “prodigy.” It covered extraordinary appearances indicative of a disturbance in the relationship between the human and divine realms.» — la taxonomía romana.

«Portents and signs were public appearances directed at the state, while omens applied to individuals.» — la distinción terminológica.

«Pliny the Elder included prodigies in his natural history, and historians like Livy and Dio Cassius recorded them as integral elements of the historical record.» — los transmisores antiguos, por su nombre.

«Julius Obsequens, an obscure writer of the fourth century A.D., collected the wonders from Livy's history into a separate book, Prodigiorum liber» — el primer coleccionista.

«Cicero mounted the most systematic attack against signs and portents to survive from antiquity in De divinatione.» — Los escépticos antiguos, también por su nombre.

«he made clear his opinion that prodigies held only the significance an interpreter read into them» — la posición de Cicerón, adjudicada.

«A great beacon traversed the heavens, lighting up the land far and wide some time before the day dawned.» — Gregorio de Tours, 584; el pasaje cierra adjudicando el prodigio a la muerte de Gundovald.

«Typical of these heroic biographies of saints and martyrs are the stock supernatural motifs scattered throughout the life of Saint Columba» — la hagiografía como cantera de motivos.

«a manikin-like being of terrible aspect appeared before me from the direction of the foot of the bed» — la intrusión demoníaca del monje Rodolfus Glaber, siglo XII, citada entera por la obra.

«Conrad Lycosthenes, a Basel theologian and humanist scholar, undertook a grandiose project to cull prodigies from every available historical source and list every strange event from the creation of the world to the present as evidence that the Second Coming was truly nigh.» — el coleccionista de prodigios que sí es de nuestro corpus.

«Published in 1557 as the Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon, his collection filled hundreds of pages with monstrosities, earthquakes, fabulous animals, and aerial wonders.» — pie de imprenta y contenido.

«An English cleric, Stephen Bateman, or Batman, translated Lycosthenes into English in 1581, under a more fearsome title of The Doome Warning All Men to the Judgemente.» — el traductor inglés; la doble grafía del apellido la da el propio autor.

«Bateman also entered into the spirit of the project by updating the chronicle and interpolating prodigies from English sources unavailable to the Swiss collector.» — el traductor que además continúa la crónica.

«Martin Luther and most other Reformation theologians accepted prodigies as signs of the Second Coming, but these leaders also deplored popular preoccupation with wonders.» — la postura de los reformadores.

«John Calvin stressed that too much interest was tantamount to doubting divine providence.» — la de Calvino, adjudicada.

«did not reach the goal of confirming a miracle a day, but he took satisfaction in finding about two per week» — sobre el anónimo de Mirabilis annus, 1660–1662.

«Their authority suffered when the finger of God began to favor political factions in the English Civil War» — data el fin de la edad de oro del prodigio y lo adjudica a causa política, no epistémica.

«with both Increase and Cotton Mather collecting “illustrious providences” in New England» — la supervivencia americana del género.

«A series of Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 reached its climax on October 13 when 50,000 people watched the sun turn pale, spin on its axis, and seem to tumble out of the sky.» — Fátima entra por la aparición mariana, no por una categoría teórica.

«Even without a conceptual framework for meteors, the witnesses provide a creditable account without any evident contamination from prior expectations or beliefs.» — sobre la crónica de Juan de Worcester, 1130 o 1131: el contrapeso que impide leerlo como desprecio a la fuente antigua.

«the scarcity of crosses in the sky before the rise of Christianity and their subsequent frequency attest to the influence of belief» — la prueba de influencia que extrae del material de cruces aéreas.

«Camerarius read allegorical meanings into each event so that a red fire betokened war and bloodshed» — sobre la compilación de Joachim Camerarius de los prodigios alemanes de fines de 1560.

«A real and recognizable event occurred that night in 1560, but the choices of Camerarius both preserve and distort the record.» — el caso de estudio metodológico de la sección.

«In his selection of data, descriptive terminology, and strategy of interpretation, he stands at the normative center of his historical setting» — Por qué Camerarius no es excéntrico sino normativo.

«He speaks nothing more or less than the accepted truth of his era, but a truth that riddles the observational record with cultural distortions.» — el cierre del caso Camerarius.

«Said to be the lost souls of pagans and sometimes led by Wotan or Thor, this host may swoop down to kidnap a passerby to join the troop.» — sobre la Cacería Salvaje o Furious Host del folclore aéreo popular.

«the corpse candles of Wales, small lights floating above the ground that foretell a death» — una de las luces populares que enumera, junto con Brown Mountain, Marfa, el Min-Min y el Dragon Lantern.

«Occult groups like the Theosophists and the“I AM” movement included communication with extraterrestrials as part of their mythology,» — su único puente al esoterismo moderno, hecho de pasada; el espaciado es de la capa de texto.

«Short humanoid aliens predominate in UFO encounters, just as diminutive supernatural beings dominate the fairy population.» — la equivalencia poblacional que traza.

«Eight potential episodes characterize most abduction reports in the literature—capture, examination, conference, tour, journey, theophany, return, and aftermath.» — los ocho episodios que aísla.

«Few reports include all eight possibilities, but those episodes that appear follow this order with surprising consistency.» — La constancia del orden.

«the abduction story repeats the initiatory pattern of separation from this world to an alien environment, where the subject undergoes an ordeal and teachings, then returns a changed person with special knowledge and powers» — la forma general que reconoce.

«An angel, fairy, divine guide, or helpful spirit accompanies the traveler through the otherworld environment» — la figura del psicopompo, nombrada por su término técnico.

«The commonplace motif of supernatural flight manifests when a dreamlike lightness of body allows the shaman to fly, when a human captive sweeps through the air with trooping fairies, or when witches ride their broomsticks to the Sabbat.» — el vuelo sobrenatural, con las tres formas juntas.

«An ordeal comprises a key episode in shamanic initiations as unfriendly demons dismember the candidate.» — el desmembramiento iniciático como paralelo del examen.

«Friendly spirits then reassemble the torn body according to a different plan, with magical powers built into the bones and organs or magical objects like rock crystals inserted into the head» — La reconstrucción con cristales.

«fairies also need human help to give birth, interbreed with humans, and replace human children with changelings» — el paralelo reproductivo, con el cambiado.

«The penis of the devil is said to be sharp and cold, again anticipating the metallic devices of aliens» — el paralelo instrumental.

«Fairy magic often depends on glamour, an ability to create illusions such as gold coins from dry leaves or a rich banquet from dirt and ordure.» — el glamour como ilusión.

«Shape-shifting is a common practice among demons and some tribes of fairies» — la metamorfosis.

«Much folklore reaches the verdict that otherworld beings are not trustworthy.» — la sentencia folclórica sobre la fiabilidad de los seres del otro mundo.

«The beautiful crystalline architecture of the Celtic otherworld returns in Betty Andreasson's descriptions of alien glasslike towers and a forest made of crystal.» — la arquitectura del otro mundo.

«Visitors to fairyland suffer no loss of memory but return to earth, where tens or hundreds of years have passed in a day» — aquí corta el paralelo: el «the “supernatural lapse of time” in fairyland» no es el «missing time».

«A break in the continuous and universal flow of time characterizes both situations, but they diverge on the nature and consequences of that break.» — la formulación exacta del corte: hay analogía, no identidad.

«He observed ... a brilliant meteor passing through the air, which was followed by a ring or hoop of fire, and within the hoop stood a man and woman of small size, handsomely dressed» — la memorata galesa de *Big David*, publicada en 1896, que la obra da como paralelo mejor.

«Though Big David went his way thinking he had watched the scene for no more than a few minutes, three hours of earthly time had slipped by.» — Su desfase temporal.

«Perhaps no other premodern UFO leaves an impression as convincing as the “Robozero Marvel” of August 15, 1663.» — el mismo documento que trae `vallee-ufo-chronicles-soviet`, analizado aquí por camino independiente.

«The Russian town of Robozero lies about thirty miles southwest of Belozersk, in Vologda Province» — grafías `Robozero` y `Belozersk`, donde Vallée transcribe `Roboziero` y `Bieloziero`.

«At noon, a large ball of fire came down over Robozero, arriving from the clearest part of the cloudless heavens.» — el cuerpo del suceso, en su traducción.

«The writer of this account, Ivachko Rievskoi, had interviewed a farmer who witnessed the event and contacted some priests who also confirmed it.» — el mismo notario que nombra Vallée.

«It was published in 1842 by the St. Petersburg Archaeographic Commission.» — la cadena de custodia documental.

«No contamination by current UFO belief is possible because no one would hear of flying saucers for more than a century.» — su argumento de no contaminación, distinto del de Vallée.

«Almost free of theory and interpretation, devoid of commonplace stereotyping, distinctive from any other report of its era, this account would do credit to UFO reporting in any age as a straightforward narrative of a remarkable event.» — su juicio sobre el documento.

«The Robozero Marvel crisscrossed the town and hovered over the lake to make clear on many counts that this giant object differed from the typical prodigies of 1663, but it far better compares to some of the UFOs that appeared three centuries later.» — Lo reusa como ejemplo del criterio 6, el de la desviación.

«that same evidence meets the lower preponderance-of-evidence standard and surely deserves a hearing on those grounds alone» — el estándar probatorio que reclama, nombrado.

«The alleged event fulfills basic authenticity requirements.» — primero de los siete criterios.

«With the heavy hand of belief always ready to stretch a report toward conformity, the report gains credit as evidence if some signs of independence defy the cultural norms.» — el criterio 6, que da valor probatorio a la desviación.

«Historical accounts like the meteor in John of Worchester's chronicle demonstrate a precedent for accuracy» — grafía `Worchester` tal cual: ver Notas de carga.

«These rules of thumb are far from airtight, and ufologists like Jacques Vallee have proposed more rigorous systems to classify the strangeness in UFO claims» — acota el alcance de sus propios criterios y remite a Vallée.

«the purpose here is no more than to draw a bottom line, a threshold of credibility» — el alcance declarado del umbral.

«Even allowing for human fallibility and self-deception, a genuine mystery seems to be left over.» — lo que dice quedar al final del descarte.

«For the sake of truth in advertising and to warn the reader of possible conflicts of interest, I will step out from behind the curtain of scholarly anonymity and declare where I stand.» — declaración de posición, en primera persona.

«I have never seen a UFO or had any sort of anomalous experience.» — lo primero que declara de sí.

«I was fortunate to have my old interest and more fortunate still that the Indiana University Folklore Institute supported research into such a dubious subject.» — su formación e institución.

«I have been a member of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the British UFO Research Organization (BUFORA), and I serve on the board of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR).» — sus afiliaciones, declaradas; antes cita NICAP y APRO desde los sesenta.

«In the end I side with the believers. My conclusion is not based on personal preference but on familiarity with the evidence.» — su conclusión, en primera persona.

«ufology is a fine mess, crowded with charlatans, true believers, gullibility, and unsubstantiated claims» — Sin ceder en el juicio sobre el campo que integra.

«I will not hazard an explanation for UFOs or insist they come from Zeta Reticuli» — se abstiene de adjudicar identidad al fenómeno.

«I do not intend to treat UFO evidence in depth or campaign in favor of particular identities for the phenomenon» — De tratar la evidencia en profundidad.

«The practices of ufologists do more to discredit than support their cause.» — se distancia del propio campo.

«Where UFOs are concerned, the proper agnosticism of science has hardened into an atheistic consensus, a certainty that nothing unconventional is involved.» — su objeción al consenso científico, en el mismo párrafo donde invoca a Hufford.

«Psychosocial theory is powerful but not airtight.» — objeta al psicosocialismo fuerte desde dentro de la premisa psicosocial.

«Psychosocial critics mistake these similarities for a verdict when they are only diagnostic tools» — Le fija su función: herramienta de diagnóstico, no veredicto.

«As things now stand, the appealing myth and the unsettling experience of UFOs continue to trouble the mind's eye and the physical eye alike.» — cierre del libro entero.

«The skies over O'Hare Airport in Chicago got a little more crowded than usual on November 7, 2006. It was 4:30 P.M. on a cloudy day just before sunset when employees of United Airlines spotted a dark gray, unlighted, elliptical or Frisbee-shaped object over Concourse C, hovering not far below the clouds. The well-defined object stayed in place while United personnel turned out for a look, with grounds crew, mechanics, pilots, and managers viewing the object before it ascended straight up and punched a clear hole into the cloud deck at 1,900 feet.» — Bullard abre el libro narrando el avistamiento del 7 de noviembre de 2006 sobre el Concourse C de O'Hare: empleados de United Airlines describen un objeto gris oscuro, sin luces, que asciende y perfora la capa nubosa.

«At least a dozen United workers reported the sighting to company officials; accounts also reached the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).» — cuenta que el reporte corrió por dos vías a la vez, la empresa y los centros civiles NUFORC y NARCAP.

«This strange story almost never made the news at all. First published in the Chicago Tribune on January 1, 2007, and already two months old, the tip that something interesting had happened came to reporters via NUFORC. When transportation newsman Jon Hilkevitch made inquiries, United officials said they knew nothing about the sighting and had no record of any unusual incident in the duty manager's log.» — refiere que la nota salió dos meses tarde en el Chicago Tribune por un dato de NUFORC, y que ni United ni la FAA admitían registro alguno; el reportero es Jon Hilkevitch.

«The public gave this belated news a warm reception. The article scored more than a million hits during the four days it remained the top story on the Tribune's Web site, while the Associated Press, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, and Newsweek picked up the account.» — Bullard mide la recepción popular: un millón de visitas en cuatro días y levantamiento por AP, NPR, CNN, MSNBC y Newsweek.

«The story quickly became a source of amusement: One air traffic controller joked that it was unacceptable for aliens to travel millions of light years only to find their gate occupied, and on the Tonight Show Jay Leno poked fun at drunken airport workers.» — el mismo suceso que convocó ese interés se vuelve materia de burla en boca de un controlador aéreo y de Jay Leno.

«Few of them advocated a particular identity for the object. They insisted only that they saw something unusual and it was unlike any aircraft or balloon they had ever seen before. Yet among some witnesses and with the public at large, a sort of default possibility hovered close to mind that this mysterious object was a visitor from space.» — sostiene que los testigos no propusieron identidad alguna y que la hipótesis del visitante del espacio la puso el ambiente, no ellos.

«That the observers saw something unusual seems beyond doubt. What they saw remains an open question.» — la fórmula con que separa el hecho del testimonio de su interpretación, y que gobierna todo el libro.

«Good testimony needs independent support, but lack of radar contact at an airport seems curious, if the object was truly solid. The weather explanation sounds thin, contrived, but at least possible.» — acepta que la explicación meteorológica es delgada y forzada, y aun así posible: no la descarta.

«At the same time, some doubts taint the negative evidence. The FAA says there was no radar contact, but the FAA would not even admit a sighting occurred until a FOIA request pried loose an embarrassing reversal in their story. The airline officials have a similar credibility problem, compounded by their insistence that the witnesses keep their mouths shut.» — objeta que la evidencia negativa también está manchada, porque la FAA solo admitió el avistamiento tras una solicitud FOIA y la aerolínea mandó callar a los testigos.

«Maybe the secrecy stems from nothing more sinister than snafus and the desire of a corporation to avoid controversy, but with distrust of government running almost as deep as the genetic code, many people translate denials into clues that some shadowy power conspires to cheat the public out of the truth.» — explica el salto de la negativa burocrática a la teoría de conspiración por la desconfianza previa hacia el gobierno, no por el caso mismo.

«If the sighting itself is a thing of wonder, the divide between popular and official responses is even more striking.» — desplaza el asunto: lo llamativo no es el objeto sino la distancia entre la respuesta popular y la oficial.

«The “story” of the O’Hare UFO is really two stories. One concerns the immediate curiosity about a mysterious object in the sky, what it was and what it was doing there; but fixation on the physical nature of UFOs overlooks an almost equally intriguing human problem.» — reparte el caso en dos historias y anuncia que fijarse en la naturaleza física del ovni deja fuera el problema humano.

«Or to frame the question in briefer terms, why are UFOs at once so popular and so despised?» — la pregunta que el libro se propone contestar.

«No solution will satisfy everyone, and no well-substantiated final conclusion is likely ever to emerge. Judging from one UFO case after another, a controversy will spiral outward as facts and interpretations alike become subjects of dispute until, in the end, the questions matter more than the answers.» — pronostica que ninguna solución conformará a todos y que la controversia acabará importando más que la respuesta.

«Public recognition of UFOs remains among the highest for any subject in the history of Gallup polls—as high as 96 percent in 1966. To set that number in perspective, consider that only 92 percent recognized the name of Gerald Ford just six months after he left the White House.» — mide la penetración del tema con las encuestas Gallup, y la contrasta con el reconocimiento del nombre de Gerald Ford.

«UFOs are matters of experience as well as belief and wonder.» — insiste en que el ovni es asunto de experiencia además de creencia y de asombro.

«A 1996 Gallup poll found that 12 percent of respondents thought they had seen a UFO, a figure that translates into over thirty million Americans.» — cifra el reporte de experiencia propia con la Gallup de 1996: doce por ciento de los encuestados, más de treinta millones de estadounidenses.

«Far from being eccentric or marginal people, UFO witnesses register normal scores on psychological tests and come from all walks of life.» — responde a la imagen del testigo marginal con los resultados de pruebas psicológicas; el pasaje sigue con la lista de oficios de los observadores.

«Despite robust success in mass, popular, and folk culture, UFOs seldom attract a serious glance from scientists, academics, the elite media, or government authorities.» — formula el desequilibrio que da título al capítulo: éxito cultural masivo y desatención de las élites.

«The habit of rejecting UFOs runs deep. In The Demon-Haunted World (1996), Sagan compiled a chapter of letters he received after publishing a skeptical article about UFO abductions in Parade, a weekly newspaper supplement magazine. One response described meetings not just with aliens but also with Jesus; a second writer saw aliens and ghosts.» — Bullard toma el capítulo de cartas que Carl Sagan reunió en The Demon-Haunted World como muestra del hábito de rechazo.

«If the claims of the first two letters are easy enough to classify as delusions, the claims of the grandmother deserve no snap judgment. She gives a matter-of-fact report of experiential phenomena as observations calling for explanation, without attempting to press any preconceived notion. Whatever the nature of her experiences, they would seem problematic enough to engage scientific curiosity, yet Sagan passed them by without any curiosity at all.» — distingue entre las cartas delirantes y el reporte sobrio de la abuela, y le reprocha a Sagan haber pasado de largo sin curiosidad ante un material que pedía explicación.

«A similar lack of interest characterizes the response of most academic disciplines to the subject. It has inspired some scholarly publications in religious studies, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, history, folklore, and especially psychology, but very few in the physical sciences.» — sitúa la producción académica: la hay en religión, estudios culturales, sociología, antropología, historia, folclore y sobre todo psicología, casi ninguna en ciencias físicas.

«If they appear in university classrooms, UFOs usually serve as examples of error in observation, reasoning, and belief. The few professors who have offered courses or pursued research with a positive approach have met with ridicule and impediments to their careers.» — describe el lugar que el tema ocupa en el aula, ejemplo de error, y el costo profesional de tratarlo en serio.

«The experience of Bruce Maccabee, an optical physicist for the U.S. Navy, illustrates that the scientific gate seems barred to UFOs without even a hearing of the evidence.» — presenta el caso de Bruce Maccabee, físico óptico de la Marina estadounidense, como prueba de que la puerta científica está cerrada antes de oír la evidencia.

«When an article appeared in the Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics concluding that refracted lights from Japanese squid boats were responsible for the sightings, Maccabee submitted a rebuttal that argued a strong case against mirages in favor of an unidentified phenomenon. The editor rejected his article, saying it contained no “real science,’ in an apparent demonstration that a study based on extensive investigation did not merit publication if it arrived at an unacceptable answer, while a study based on nothing more than newspaper reports breezed into print as long as its results conformed to proper scientific opinion.» — cuenta que la revista rechazó la réplica de Maccabee al artículo de las luces de los barcos calamareros japoneses en Kaikoura, y saca la moraleja sobre el criterio editorial.

«In casual conversation with faculty members over the years, I have heard scholars usually restrained and careful in their judgments suddenly turn opinionated and emotional when UFOs are the topic.» — testimonio en primera persona: académicos por lo demás medidos se vuelven opinativos y emocionales con el tema.

«These people admit that they know very little about UFOs with one breath then declare with the next that the subject is a silly one and unworthy of attention.» — señala la contradicción entre confesar ignorancia y dictaminar en el mismo aliento.

«The hatchet of distrust falls everywhere—on the reliability of eyewitnesses, dependability of the reports, honesty of the literature recording the reports, and credibility of any explanation or theory if it leaves room for the unconventional. Doubters wrap evidence, interpretation, witness, and proponent alike in deep layers of prejudice. If this informal impression is truly as widespread as it seems, no wonder UFOs remain shunned as a scholarly taboo.» — sostiene que la desconfianza cae sobre todo a la vez —testigo, reporte, literatura y teoría— y concluye que por eso el tema es tabú académico.

«This rejection is entrenched yet relies on tenuous justifications. During the 1950s and 1960s the U.S. Air Force insisted that nothing more than mistaken identities explained UFOs, but poor investigations or no investigations at all undercut the credibility of these repeated assertions.» — objeta que la negativa institucional descansa en justificaciones endebles, y cita las investigaciones pobres o inexistentes de la Fuerza Aérea.

«While it circulated in the news as the official verdict, his declaration contradicted the study's actual findings that over one-fourth of the reports investigated, including many of the most detailed and impressive cases, remained unexplained.» — opone el veredicto de Edward U. Condon a los hallazgos del propio estudio de Colorado, donde más de un cuarto de los reportes quedó sin explicar.

«The skeptics readily declare that they have solved the UFO mystery, but a close examination of their solutions shows that some are persuasive while others are unconvincing and any rush to close the book on UFOs is premature.» — concede que algunas soluciones de los escépticos convencen y otras no, y por eso llama prematuro dar el asunto por cerrado; los nombra: Menzel, Philip J. Klass, James Oberg, Robert Sheaffer y Joe Nickell.

«By way of contrast, mainstream scientists like Maccabee, Northwestern University astronomer J. Allen Hynek, and University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James McDonald have investigated UFO cases and concluded that a genuine unconventional phenomenon exists.» — contrapone a científicos de corriente principal —Maccabee, J. Allen Hynek y James McDonald— que investigaron y concluyeron que existe un fenómeno no convencional.

«So here we have the pretty paradox of UFOs: Though popular with the public and a staple image in everyday life, they cannot even get off the ground as a matter of interest among the scientists and journalists who ought to lead the way in exploring the matter.» — nombra la paradoja que organiza el capítulo: popularidad pública y desinterés de quienes deberían encabezar la indagación.

«How has this darling of the public become such a pariah for the elite? The fault lies not with the evidence, because the evidence has received little serious attention» — traslada la pregunta del terreno de la evidencia al humano, porque la evidencia, dice, casi no ha sido examinada.

«With sufficient information, all UFO reports resolve into conventional phenomena. This oft-repeated argument serves as a cornerstone for opposition to UFOs and gains support from the undeniably high ratio of noise to signal in the reports. While the Air Force claim that they have found satisfactory explanations for 97 percent of cases was overoptimistic, ufologists admit that conventional solutions account for 80 percent or more of reports.» — primera razón del rechazo, con la concesión de que los propios ufólogos admiten explicación convencional para el ochenta por ciento o más.

«Opponents justify ignoring the-residue of unexplained reports with a faith that, given further evidence, an ordinary answer will fall into place for these cases as well.» — describe cómo se justifica ignorar el residuo inexplicado: por la fe en que la respuesta ordinaria acabará apareciendo.

«UFOs are hard to study and are uncongenial to the preferred practice of science. They do not fly into the laboratory, submit to experiments, allow observation under controlled conditions, or act in predictable ways.» — segunda razón: el objeto no se deja tratar como pide la práctica científica.

«The hoaxes and delusions that plagued the study of alleged psychic phenomena in the nineteenth century admonish modern scientists that witnesses can distort or fabricate facts as well as relate them, while complex conventional events may combine to deceive even the most honest witness and sink investigators into a morass of confusion.» — trae el precedente de la investigación psíquica del siglo XIX para advertir que el testigo puede distorsionar o fabricar tanto como relatar.

«The extravagance of UFO claims far outstrips the supporting evidence. Assertions that the government has known all about UFOs since one crashed at Roswell in 1947; that aliens have abducted thousands if not millions of people; that UFOs make right-angle turns at high speed, bend beams of light, or vanish into thin air; that extraterrestrials can reach the earth in the first place—all clash with the prevailing understanding of physics and history. After sixty years of reports no one has submitted indisputable evidence—no alien body, unearthly fragment of metal, or technologically advanced artifact.» — tercera razón, y la enuncia sin suavizarla: tras sesenta años de reportes nadie ha entregado cuerpo, fragmento ni artefacto.

«Beyond problems inherent in the subject matter, less explicit social reasons come to mind as further grounds for rejection.» — Bullard pasa de los problemas del objeto a las razones sociales del rechazo.

«Popular enthusiasm for UFOs has degraded their perceived worth as a serious topic. Too many books, conferences, Web sites, and documentaries implicate UFOs in conspiracy theories, mystical speculations about crop circles, and claims like the Roswell crash is the source of our modern technology. These extravagant assertions excite enthusiasts but leave critical onlookers with reason to think that UFOs belong to the realm of faith and that scientific study is unwarranted.» — cuarta razón: el exceso de libros, congresos y sitios que mezclan el tema con conspiración y círculos de cultivo lo empuja al terreno de la fe.

«Quality reports and rigorous research suffer collateral damage in the crossfire of dubious claims.» — consecuencia que le importa: el reporte bueno paga el precio del malo.

«While some UFO investigators and researchers are admirably painstaking, their work is seldom the most visible. The standards of critical thinking apparent in most popular treatments tend to be lax, and a willingness to tolerate less-than-air-tight cases as adequate proof pervades the field. It also suffers from being too wide open, so that outright charlatans and opportunists can speak as authorities with little or no peer control.» — detalla su reproche al campo: el trabajo cuidadoso es el menos visible, el criterio es laxo y no hay control de pares que frene al charlatán.

«Yet close examination suggests that this conclusion belongs to what folklorist David Hufford terms a ‘tradition of disbelief,” where a negative belief comes to appear true simply by being repeated often enough.» — adjudica a David Hufford la noción de tradición de incredulidad, donde la creencia negativa se vuelve verdadera de tanto repetirse.

«Faith may sustain negative as readily as positive beliefs, and in the case of UFOs, conviction has supplanted evidence so that the verdict of scientists owes little to science.» — extiende la simetría: la fe sostiene igual la creencia negativa, y en este caso el veredicto científico debe poco a la ciencia.

«Confusion of interpretations with facts undercuts perception of UFOs as a genuine scientific problem.» — séptima razón, y la que le sirve de bisagra hacia su propia tesis.

«A recurrent criticism of UFOs is that they appear too earthbound for space visitors. If taken to mean that the things said about UFOs—the purposes and meanings attributed to them, the associations and speculations imposed on them—seem too firmly rooted in earthly affairs to be truly alien, then this criticism strikes close to the mark.» — le concede al escéptico que lo dicho sobre los ovnis suena demasiado terrestre para ser ajeno, y precisa en qué sentido se lo concede.

«The phenomenon of UFOs has a strangeness all its own; but theories, explanations, and beliefs about UFOs often supplant, mask, or distort the phenomenon with a suspect familiarity. As a result it becomes easy to mistake human ideas for the physical reality and believe that UFOs are nothing more than cultural products.» — separa el fenómeno de lo dicho sobre él, y advierte que confundirlos lleva a creer que el ovni no es más que producto cultural.

«When an account in a book or Web site purports to describe an eyewitness experience, the intention may be honest, but many hands have intervened along the way to complicate the truth. Even with the best of intentions, every participant in reporting, relaying, and recording a UFO account may add to or subtract from the story, slant or revise it, introduce error or distortion, until the final result bears imperfect resemblance to the initial event.» — enuncia el problema de procedencia: entre la experiencia y el registro final intervienen muchas manos, aun de buena fe.

«The Event.—At the bottom lies a possible phenomenon that exists independent of witnesses, the tree that falls in the woods whether anyone hears it or not.» — primer escalón de su cadena, y el que deja abierta la existencia de un fenómeno independiente del testigo.

«The Experience-—Humans meet the phenomenon for the first time when an individual senses it. The perception may be a sensory and emotional response to an objective event, but not necessarily: a subjective experience based on hallucination, illusion, delusion, fantasy, or error can feel like a real event.» — segundo escalón: la percepción puede responder a un hecho objetivo, o no, y la experiencia subjetiva se siente igual de real.

«Memory.—Once an experience passes from the senses, the primary evidence that it happened lies in the memory of the witness, Yet memory is not set in stone but a fluid, reconstructive process that personal agendas, outside influence, and subsequent information can distort or falsify.» — tercer escalón: la memoria es proceso reconstructivo, no registro fijo.

«An experience enters the “UFO” category only when recognized as unconventional, but the passage from perception to conception is fraught with opportunities for bad judgment, erroneous connections, and confusion of conventional sights with something out of the ordinary.» — cuarto escalón: la categoría ovni se aplica al reconocer algo como no convencional, y ahí entra el error de juicio.

«Communication.—To share a personal experience the witness must cast it in the common language of words and images. Descriptive and narrative reports re-create the experience for others but never as a perfect image, always as a version compromised by the limitations and stereotyping tendencies of words.» — quinto escalón: contar obliga a pasar por palabras e imágenes, que estereotipan.

«Social Reception.— UFO reports make their social debut when an audience receives them. Each receiver repeats the process of understanding as he or she formulates a personal version of what the witness relates. The report becomes public property as individuals advocate or dispute various versions and understandings to impose a chosen sense of truth, but these multiple participants recast and reinterpret the report in ways that the witness may never have intended.» — sexto escalón: al recibirse, el reporte se vuelve propiedad pública y se reinterpreta en direcciones que el testigo no quiso.

«Cultural Representation.—The sum of stories and ideas about UFOs comprises the cultural image of the subject. This collective knowledge funds the awareness of people who have not had experiences and the ideas of image-makers in the entertainment industry and popular culture. Cultural narratives link UFO stories and ideas into a suppositional picture of reality, and whether accurate or fanciful, this picture not only shapes many people's impressions and understanding of UFOs but also joins the parts with a sense of coherence that enables willing people to believe that the cultural image is true.» — séptimo escalón: la imagen cultural alimenta a quien no tuvo experiencia y le da coherencia bastante para creerla.

«Though the preceding list depicts UFO knowledge as a succession of layers, the relationship of processes might be better visualized as circular rather than vertical. Feedback loops interconnect the various stages so that no witness starts out as a blank slate ready to record a phenomenon.» — corrige su propio esquema: el circuito es circular, con retroalimentación, y ningún testigo llega en blanco.

«Cultural ideas of how a UFO should look or behave push witnesses to fill the gaps inside a cluster of lights with the perception of a solid framework, and they pull interpreters to forget the full strangeness of a report and recall only elements compatible with nuts-and-bolts technology.» — describe las dos direcciones del sesgo: rellenar el racimo de luces con una estructura sólida, y olvidar la extrañeza que no cabe en la tuerca y el tornillo.

«Prior conceptions have turned Venus or an airplane into a spaceship many times in the files of UFO cases, and outside social interests like conspiracies or child abuse have drawn UFOs into associations that are heartfelt but empty of an observational basis.» — da los casos medidos del sesgo previo: Venus o un avión vueltos nave, y agendas ajenas —conspiración, abuso infantil— arrastradas al expediente.

«Coded into schemes of cultural knowledge, UFOs acquire meanings borrowed from traditional cultural themes like the threatening outsider, a coming apocalypse, or saviors from the sky.» — nombra los temas tradicionales que prestan significado: el forastero amenazante, el apocalipsis por venir, los salvadores del cielo.

«The UFOs that soar in social space may little resemble their counterparts in outer space. So many human variables mediate between the cultural representation of an event and the event itself that sound reason exists to doubt, even despair of, meaningful fidelity between the two.» — la formulación con que separa el ovni social del ovni del espacio, y la duda que se sigue de ella.

«Popular in Europe, this approach finds trenchant English-language advocates in the American skeptic Martin Kottmeyer and writers associated with the British journal Magonia.» — Bullard nombra a los sostenedores de la escuela psicosocial en lengua inglesa: el escéptico estadounidense Martin Kottmeyer y los escritores de la revista británica Magonia.

«Most psychologists and academics who treat UFOs borrow the psychosocial tenet of cultural influences to explain the specific contents of UFO reports.» — observa que el préstamo psicosocial es de uso general entre psicólogos y académicos que tocan el tema.

«Ufologists predictably reject such theories but seldom recognize that human influences channel thoughts and expressions about UFOs onto well-worn paths.» — su reproche a los ufólogos: rechazan la teoría sin ver que lo humano encauza lo que se piensa y se dice.

«Whatever sort of phenomenal fact UFOs may be, the social fact of UFO ideas dominates representations and discussions, and this domination may contribute to prejudice against UFOs as an independent phenomenon.» — sostiene que el hecho social de las ideas domina la discusión, y que esa dominación alimenta el prejuicio contra el fenómeno.

«The psychosocial proponents overstate their case when they take legitimate instances of cultural influence as sufficient pretext to dismiss an underlying phenomenon, but they rightly insist that UFOs as we know them present significant psychosocial dimensions.» — reparte la razón: los psicosociales exageran al usar la influencia cultural para liquidar el fenómeno, y aciertan al exigir que se cuente la dimensión psicosocial.

«I will argue that UFO ideas comprise a modern myth, one that has grown out of cultural traditions, psychological predispositions, and social preoccupations, to create a full-blown understanding of this world based on its relationship to others.» — enuncia la tesis del libro: las ideas sobre ovnis forman un mito moderno crecido de tradición, predisposición psicológica y preocupación social.

«The means to cast UFOs into human terms include imagery, themes, motifs, narrative structures, and explanatory theories adapted to a UFO context from cultural sources that are sometimes borrowed from traditions and contemporary parallels and are sometimes invented independently as a response to similar situations.» — enumera los medios de la adaptación —imágenes, temas, motivos, estructuras narrativas, teorías— y admite que unos se toman de la tradición y otros se inventan de nuevo ante situaciones parecidas.

«I do not intend to treat UFO evidence in depth or campaign in favor of particular identities for the phenomenon, but only to recognize that the sights and the ideas about them are inseparable.» — declara su abstención: no juzga la evidencia ni defiende identidad alguna para el fenómeno.

«Understanding the phenomenal UFO requires awareness of what cultural influences do to it. Understanding the cultural UFO must reckon with contributions of experience or else both understandings remain oversimplified and partial.» — la simetría que le da forma al libro: cada mitad queda parcial sin la otra.

«The cultural role identified by psychosocial proponents does not have to discredit a genuine phenomenon; rather such influences demonstrate the inescapable fact that UFO thinking inhabits a cultural context where belief restructures our perceptions until UFOs become something less of what they are, something more of what we think they ought to be.» — insiste en que reconocer el papel cultural no desacredita un fenómeno genuino, y describe el efecto de la creencia sobre la percepción.

«Most of us do not know UFOs directly but only through what people say about them—the witness's report of experience, the investigator's account of other people's experiences, the researcher's historical narrative based on the collation and retelling of reports, the ufologist’s explanatory and interpretational discussions, theories, disputes, and speculations.» — el punto de partida de su método: casi nadie conoce el ovni de primera mano, sino por lo que otros dicen, y enumera las manos por las que pasa.

«All participants speak a cultural language. Its vocabularies and templates build narratives, its meanings structure beliefs and discourse.» — todos los participantes hablan la misma lengua cultural, que provee vocabularios y plantillas.

«Even a straightforward eyewitness report is neither pure nor simple because experience itself is a personal story, its makings filtered through acquired expectations and its outcome cast in a cultural mold.» — ni siquiera el reporte directo del testigo es puro: la experiencia misma llega filtrada por la expectativa.

«Ufology represents an exemplary case of unofficial knowledge, of beliefs held and developed by an extensive public independent of—and even in defiance of—recognized social authorities.» — define la ufología como caso ejemplar de conocimiento no oficial, sostenido por un público amplio al margen —y en desafío— de las autoridades reconocidas.

«They have also studied the legend and related narrative genres that describe encounters with the extranormal.» — por qué el folclore es la disciplina indicada: ya estudia la leyenda y los géneros vecinos que narran el encuentro con lo extranormal.

«Folklore scholarship has explored the functions and meanings of narratives, how jokes and urban legends express fears and tensions current in society, how myths order ideals and beliefs into a coherent narrative map of how the world does and ought to work» — lo que le pide al folclore: funciones y significados de los relatos, y cómo el mito ordena ideales y creencias en un mapa narrativo.

«The most audible voices speaking about UFOs belong not to witnesses but to ufologists, the people interested in the subject who in some sense study UFOs. Unlike astronomy or geology or other well-defined disciplines, ufology is slippery and amorphous. Even such a basic issue as the scope of the field lacks widespread agreement.» — las voces audibles no son las de los testigos sino las de los ufólogos, y el campo carece hasta de acuerdo sobre su propio alcance.

«The first leaves UFOs as a social phenomenon, a sight mysterious in human thought and behavior but otherwise not necessarily unconventional. The second accents the mysteriousness of the object itself, its unconventional qualities sustained even after experts try and fail to explain it.» — compara las dos definiciones clásicas: la de Condon deja el ovni como fenómeno social, la de Hynek acentúa la rareza del objeto.

«This tension between expansive and restrictive inclinations tugs at ufology throughout its history, but the tendency toward enlargement emerges as the clear winner.» — diagnostica el pleito entre la inclinación expansiva y la restrictiva, y declara ganadora a la primera.

«UFO story types begin with personal experience accounts. They range from simple descriptions of distant lights or objects to elaborate close-encounter reports, this latter group including observations near enough to reveal a structured craft, interactions between the UFO and earthly objects or persons (such as ground traces, interference with electrical equipment, or injury to humans), and the appearance of UFO occupants.» — clasifica los tipos de relato desde la luz distante hasta el encuentro cercano con rastro, interferencia, lesión y ocupantes.

«The three most complex stories in the UFO literature describe friendly meetings between humans and aliens (contacts), kidnap of humans by alien beings (abductions), and crashes of UFOs (crash retrievals). These three story types have provoked intensive quests for meaning centered on such emotionally charged possibilities as cosmic salvation, alien hostility, and government deception.» — los tres relatos más complejos —contacto, abducción, recuperación de naves accidentadas— y las cargas emocionales que arrastran.

«A UFO connection has formed with suggestive historical events like the Tunguska explosion of 1908, the disappearance of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle, the apparent mutilation of cattle from the 1970s onward, and the beautiful, increasingly complex crop circles that have appeared in English wheat fields since the 1980s. Even Bigfoot and other mystery monsters become aliens in some proposals.» — inventaría lo que la ufología ha ido anexando: Tunguska, el Triángulo de las Bermudas, las mutilaciones de ganado, los círculos de cultivo y hasta Bigfoot.

«Conspiracy theories have settled into UFO belief as basic tenets and all-purpose axioms of interpretation. ‘The Roswell crash becomes the reason for a secrecy campaign that shapes all of history since 1947 and morphs into claims about government treaties with aliens and plots to take over the world by secret earthly or extraterrestrial groups.» — describe cómo la conspiración pasó de hipótesis a axioma, con Roswell como origen de una campaña de secreto que ordena toda la historia posterior a 1947.

«The disclosure movement, an effort to force the government to reveal its UFO secrets, and exopolitics, a political program for how life will go on after the public learns about the alien presence, have grown out of the conspiracy premise in ufology.» — deriva el movimiento de divulgación y la exopolítica de esa misma premisa conspirativa.

«A consensus is so rare among people who identify themselves as ufologists that ufology is more nearly synonymous with the sum of UFO beliefs than with anything like a well-defined academic discipline.» — por falta de consenso, dice, la ufología equivale a la suma de las creencias sobre ovnis más que a una disciplina.

«In its broadest sense as the study of UFOs and in a narrower sense as promotion of an unconventional identity for them, ufology covers a variety of viewpoints and the reader needs a scorecard to recognize the players. The following list is based on a subjective perception of some key types that participate in UFO conventions, discussions, and literature, along with their interests, perspectives, and agendas. The types are ideals, whereas in reality the characteristics often mix in individualistic ways:» — Bullard advierte que su lista de tipos es subjetiva y de tipos ideales, que en la práctica se mezclan.

«Scientific Ufologists.—For this group UFOs are a phenomenon accessible to rational inquiry. These people pursue in-depth case investigations, critical examination of evidence, comparison of collected data, and rigorous research projects to determine if any UFO reports describe an unknown phenomenon. Scientific ufology aims to prove or disprove an evidential basis for the UFO phenomenon rather than to find meanings in it. Exemplified by Hynek and McDonald, professed by the leading UFO organizations, this scientific approach represents ufology in the purest sense of a scientific or scholarly discipline.» — primer tipo, el ufólogo científico, que busca probar o refutar una base evidencial en vez de buscar significados; lo ejemplifican Hynek y McDonald.

«explorers care about evidence but only insofar as it supports their beliefs. The explorer is to ufology what Indiana Jones is to archaeology—a treasure hunter eager to bring home the prize rather than a systematic excavator attentive to every detail.» — segundo tipo, el explorador, con el símil que le pone: es a la ufología lo que Indiana Jones a la arqueología.

«The critical discipline to give negative evidence its due may get lost in the shuffle as explorers hurry from case to case and from issue to issue in selective pursuit of proof for their chosen theory.» — lo que se pierde con ese tipo: la disciplina de dar su peso a la evidencia negativa.

«Interested Followers.—This group consists of the consumers rather than the producers of ufology. Here belong the people who join organizations, attend conferences, and read the literature with a keen interest in whatever is going on in the field, but these individuals support rather than contribute directly to investigation and research. This rank and file shapes ufology, since what they want to hear influences speaker selection for conferences and articles published in UFO magazines. The breadth of the field reflects the broad interests of these members.» — tercer tipo, el seguidor interesado, que consume y no produce, pero decide de hecho los temas de congresos y revistas.

«Activists.—Some people have grown impatient with the gathering of evidence. ‘They regard the existence of UFOs and their extraterrestrial origin as established facts and care only about the implications of alien visitation. Some of these people consider the social consequences of alien contact. Others regard a government “truth embargo” as the real impediment to mainstream recognition for UFOs, then try to wrest UFO information out of recalcitrant agencies or convince Congress to take the initiative. The philosophical and political orientation of activists sets them far apart from the research interests of scientific ufologists.» — cuarto tipo, el activista, para quien el origen extraterrestre es hecho probado y el problema es el embargo informativo del gobierno.

«Specialists.—The people who concentrate on one aspect of ufology are sometimes helpful and sometimes harmful to the field. At the positive end belong people whose prior training or long practical experience equips them to undertake skillful investigations of matters like abductions, Roswell, or ground-trace cases. At the negative end are people who claim expertise and special knowledge of doubtful validity or promote unfounded claims and favorite speculations with the relentless insistence of cranks. With so many conspiracies, wooly theories, and wild claims so prominent in the public image of ufology, the dedication of some specialists to their cause does much damage to the field.» — quinto tipo, el especialista, con sus dos extremos: la pericia real y la pericia declarada de dudosa validez.

«Interlopers.—One type of specialist enters the UFO field for a while, promotes some special interest, and then leaves.» — sexto tipo, el intruso, que entra por un interés ajeno y se va.

«The loyalty of interlopers lies with some other subject, and their UFO commitment lasts only as long as it serves their primary interest.» — lo que define al intruso es dónde está su lealtad: en otro tema, y solo dura mientras le sirva.

«An extensive penumbra of passive believers surrounds the active proponents and advocates. Passive believers may read an occasional UFO article or book, or watch a TV documentary now and then, but UFOs are no more than a casual interest, certainly not a scholarly study, hobby, or obsession. Yet this superficial acquaintance may lead these people to affirm a belief in UFOs for an opinion poll or respond in casual conversation that there is “something to” them, thereby insulating the subject from official hostility and media jests with a widespread social willingness to give UFOs the benefit of the doubt.» — describe la penumbra de creyentes pasivos, y le atribuye un efecto concreto: aislar el tema de la hostilidad oficial y de la burla mediática.

«Believers also include the metaphysical seekers, a group recognized by sociologists as engaged in an active quest for satisfying spiritual ties outside of conventional religion and likely to experiment with a succession of alternatives such as UFOs and New Age beliefs.” Seekers have little interest in UFO phenomena but listen to messages from the Space Brothers, channelers, or prophets.» — distingue al buscador metafísico, que no se interesa por el fenómeno sino por los mensajes de los Hermanos del Espacio, canalizadores o profetas.

«Skeptics.—To counterbalance the believers, there are the disbelievers, the skeptics and debunkers who attack UFOs as a social delusion. Some active skeptics like Menzel and Klass find conventional solutions for specific cases, and these findings have supported a general skeptical thesis that the only strangeness in UFOs belongs to human error, imagination, and hoaxes.» — séptimo tipo, el escéptico; nombra a Menzel y a Klass como quienes hallan soluciones convencionales caso por caso.

«The philosophical objections of skepticism blame the preference for fanciful ideas over rational answers on a widespread, uncritical will to believe, and frown on beliefs like UFOs, creationism, and astrology for corroding social commitment to science and reason, Like ufologists, the skeptics organize to promote their cause and keep close watch on what they regard as the offenses of UFO believers.» — el fondo filosófico de esa postura: la voluntad acrítica de creer, y la preocupación por la corrosión del compromiso social con la ciencia.

«Critics. —Also like ufologists, skeptics belong to a larger community. Not all doubts about UFOs lead to blanket rejection but rather to questions about a particular case, bit of evidence, line of argument, or interpretation. The critics who do not reject UFOs as a philosophical creed nevertheless expect convincing evidence and continue to doubt because they have not found sufficient reason to change their minds.» — octavo tipo, el crítico, que duda de un caso o de un argumento sin rechazar el asunto entero.

«Another basis for criticism is an alternate belief, as some conspiracy theorists allege that alien abductions are not alien at all but illusions resulting from government thought-control experiments.» — señala la crítica que nace de una creencia alterna: que las abducciones son experimentos gubernamentales de control mental.

«Disbelief maintains the dynamism of belief by sustaining controversy and dispute.» — le da función a la incredulidad dentro del propio discurso: sostiene la controversia y con ella la vitalidad de la creencia.

«Many people trace their interest in UFOs to a personal experience, among them such prominent ufologists as Leonard Stringfield, Richard Hall, Walt Andrus, and Budd Hopkins» — noveno tipo, el experienciador; nombra a Leonard Stringfield, Richard Hall, Walt Andrus y Budd Hopkins como ufólogos que llegaron por experiencia propia.

«Nobel Prize—winning biochemist Kary Mullis had a bizarre abductionlike experience but did not accept UFOs because of it. Many ordinary people without his credentials also compartmentalize the experience, certain that something strange happened but unwilling to commit to any solution. The experience remains memorable and puzzling but without an identity.» — el contraejemplo con que corta la inferencia: Kary Mullis tuvo una experiencia de tipo abducción y no por eso aceptó los ovnis.

«Folklorists studying supernatural experiences have discovered that a direct question like, “Have you ever seen a ghost?” will likely draw out nothing more than a shake of the head and a denial, whereas an indirect question like, “What do you know about the stranger side of life?” may open up a wealth of memories about apparent psychic and paranormal experiences.» — trae el hallazgo metodológico del folclore: la pregunta directa cierra la boca, la indirecta abre el repertorio.

«In my experience, to ask, “Who has seen a UFO?” usually wins fewer responses than the inquiry, “Who has seen something strange in the sky?» — aplica esa lección a su propio trabajo de campo, con las dos formulaciones y su rendimiento desigual.

«UFOs share with ghosts the status of a socially stigmatized subject, and some people may hedge their opinions to avoid ridicule, but for others the uncertainty expresses a straightforward, well-judged position. For them the implicit social identity that equates UFO with space visitor may specify too much. They may want more evidence or prefer another identity, since one person's spaceship may be another's angel or omen.» — explica la reserva del testigo por dos vías distintas: el estigma social y el juicio de que la etiqueta ovni, leída como nave, especifica de más.

«Insiders.—A special kind of experiencer has risen to prominence in recent years, an individual who claims privileged information about UFOs. This information usually concerns inside access to military or other governmental sources and serves to confirm allegations like crashes, alien bodies, secret projects, high-level interest, or interaction with extraterrestrials. Insiders typically support the most sensational UFO beliefs, but with claims that are hard to establish and doubtful. The bearers may enjoy a brief period of celebrity within the UFO community then fall into disrepute.» — décimo tipo, el insider, que reclama información privilegiada de fuente militar o gubernamental y suele durar poco en el crédito del campo.

«This diverse cast of characters deploys around almost any UFO issue. A wellpublicized case like the O'Hare incident brought out scientific ufologists interested primarily in the sighting, but others emphasized the apparent cover-up, and the same story served other interests as subject for meditations on the purpose of UFO visitation or incitement for the government to release its UFO secrets. Different approaches join with varied opinions as a reminder of the inherent heterogeneity of ufology.» — usa el propio caso de O'Hare para mostrar cómo el mismo suceso alimenta agendas distintas.

«Some ufologists dispute the extraterrestrial hypothesis, some dismiss abductions or Roswell, some are as harsh as skeptics in criticizing evidence or theory, and others argue with passion for some personal notion about the identity or purpose of UFOs.» — recuerda que las conclusiones que parecen obligadas no son unánimes ni dentro del campo.

«The divisions have grown more acute since the mid-1980s in absence of any one respected authority to speak for the field, and with a proliferation of controversial UFO-related claims to further complicate treating ufology as a unitary whole in any meaningful sense.» — fecha el agravamiento de las divisiones y lo liga a la falta de una autoridad que hable por el campo.

«A more feasible alternative seeks out representative positions. The breadth of ufological thinking is considerable, but this variety distorts the everyday practice of most participants. Majority opinion typically clusters into a narrow band of understandings of UFOs as mechanical devices, extraterrestrial spaceships known as such by a government that hides the truth.» — explica su elección de método: describir por posiciones representativas, y nombra la banda estrecha en que se agrupa la opinión mayoritaria.

«The idea of extraterrestrial UFOs belongs to the realm of what can best be termed “popular ufology.’ Critics both inside and outside the field may deride this image as naive or a caricature, but it is representative of how the general public, the mass media, and a majority of people with an interest in the subject understand UFOs. Popular ufology identifies a normative expression of “what ufologists believe” based on ideas that have attracted widespread attention and enthusiasm.» — acuña el rótulo con que trabajará el libro, y aclara que describe lo normativo, no lo mejor del campo.

«The results do not necessarily express the best that the field has to offer, and they include even embarrassing or improbable elements that most serious ufologists reject, such as 1950s contactees or modern-day exopolitics.» — el límite que le pone a ese rótulo: incluye lo que la mayoría de los ufólogos serios rechaza, contactados de los cincuenta y exopolítica de hoy.

«timely given that the evidence-based, rigorous brand of ufology that Hynek advocated has fallen somewhat out of favor today, or if still paid lip service no longer corresponds to the bulk of ufological activity. Such groups as NARCAP and some individuals continue to practice scientific ufology, but the pursuits that now occupy center stage show less regard to painstaking establishment of an unconventional phenomenon than to attributing meanings and purposes to less-than-firm evidence.» — constata que la ufología rigurosa que Hynek defendía perdió el centro de la escena frente a la atribución de significados; el pasaje arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«Another reason to favor popular ufology as the most representative version of the field is the possibility of defining it in objective terms. Prescribing what makes up the best of ufology or its mainstream risks an irreconcilable clash of individual opinions; delineating the popular trends of the field requires only consultations of its literature as a matter of record.» — la segunda razón de su elección: lo popular se puede delimitar consultando el registro, y lo mejor del campo no.

«Jerome Clark’s comprehensive UFO Encyclopedia provides a scholarly discussion of many of the topics that have held some sort of place within ufology over six decades. One of the most valuable barometers of the state of affairs in ufology is the annual symposium of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). At each convention the speakers cover a cross section of issues in the field, while forty years of symposium proceedings preserve the prevailing interests and changing beliefs from year to year.» — declara sus dos fuentes documentales: la enciclopedia de Jerome Clark y cuarenta años de actas del simposio anual de MUFON.

«Scientific and popular ufology often stand in opposition, the one dedicated to an objective understanding of the phenomenon, the other concerned with subjective understanding of what UFOs mean. This book will usually defer to popular ideas as the only way to manage generalizations about ufology and the best way to uncover the human meanings of UFOs.» — anuncia que el libro se inclinará por las ideas populares, y por qué.

«Not everyone will be happy with this choice, but it represents the field of ufology in its broadest sense and also in terms that are demonstrable and supportable by reference to documentation. At the same time it bears repeating that popular ideas are far from unanimous and not necessarily representative of ufological thinking at its best. Scientific ufology will serve as a necessary check to popular trends, while skeptical explanations, particularly the psychosocial approach, provide a conventional challenge to the unconventional premises of ufology.» — asume el costo de esa decisión y nombra los dos contrapesos que se impone: la ufología científica y la explicación psicosocial.

«A basic task for this book is to distinguish the human contribution to UFO narratives.» — enuncia la tarea básica del libro.

«A theme implies that multiple clues converge to support a single idea, and a theme of UFO thinking reveals itself when varied descriptive and interpretive texts repeat a similar complex of ideas.» — define el tema como convergencia de indicios, y dice cuándo se reconoce uno en la literatura ovni.

«Three thematic complexes recur with noteworthy insistence in UFO literature. The extraterrestrial hypothesis and conspiracy theories stand out as favored and fundamental tenets, expressed in some form or other with almost every breath. A third theme draws UFOs into the ongoing cultural love-hate relationship with technology. The expressions are less explicit perhaps than with the other two themes, yet UFO discourse often mirrors some aspect of this ambivalence.» — los tres complejos temáticos del libro: hipótesis extraterrestre, teoría de conspiración y la relación de amor y odio con la tecnología.

«The first chapter will argue that thinking about UFOs can be understood as the creation of a myth. This identity does not pass judgment on the reality of the phenomenon but proposes that UFO thinking follows a distinctive strategy for the construction of understanding, one that builds a complex and self-sustaining image of reality but serves human purposes over straightforward historical truth.» — Bullard anuncia el argumento del capítulo primero y le pone su límite: identificar un mito no dictamina sobre la realidad del fenómeno.

«Chapter 2 outlines a history to trace how key characteristics of UFO knowledge have emerged and how they have developed into a mythology. Chapter 3 broadens the perspective to examine a “prehistory” of strange sights in the sky, the various eras when those objects were supernatural aerial prodigies, natural anomalies of science, or technological mysteries like the phantom airships of the 1890s. These reports reflect the power of changing expectations to reshape what people see and bring into sharp relief the human contribution to observation.» — los capítulos segundo y tercero: la historia del saber ufológico y la prehistoria de prodigios aéreos, anomalías naturales y aeronaves fantasma de los años noventa del siglo XIX.

«In the fourth chapter the subject, taken in its broadest form, is the relationship of humans with the otherworld. Far from being a modern invention, the notion of extraterrestrials belongs to ancient cosmologies, philosophical speculations about the plurality of worlds, and scientific debates over canals on Mars and dying planets.» — el capítulo cuarto trata la relación con el otro mundo, y niega de entrada que el extraterrestre sea invención moderna.

«Ideas of the modern alien evolved from the supernatural beings of religion, mythology, and folklore, and from travelers’ tales that envisioned faraway places as habitations of outlandish creatures. Science fiction carried these principles of the imagination outward to the stars.» — de dónde deriva el alienígena moderno: seres sobrenaturales de religión, mitología y folclore, y relatos de viajeros.

«The fifth chapter treats the minor theme of the space children—that is, stories of human children imperiled or improved in fantastic ways by contact with beings that are alien in some sense—as a case example of mythic structures organizing UFO narratives even in their smaller aspects.» — el capítulo quinto, que él mismo llama tema menor, sobre los niños del espacio como caso de estructura mítica.

«Chapter 6 considers the extremes of positive and negative expectations associated with UFOs. Fears of invasion in the 1950s have continued in apprehensions over personal safety from abductions, and early concerns about military censorship have escalated from rumors that a super-secret agency hides the Roswell crash to alarms that the government colludes with aliens to create a totalitarian New World Order. These UFO versions parallel concurrent fears, such as Soviet attack in the 1950s and the child abuse panic of the 1980s, and entangle with conspiracy theories that an evil government threatens to destroy liberty and control the world.» — el capítulo sexto: el miedo a la invasión, la censura militar y el New World Order como extremos negativos de la expectativa.

«contactees preached that Space Brothers came to rescue the earth from cold war dangers, but hope has sprouted as well from the uncongenial soil of abductions as some abductees report not just harrowing experiences but also life-changing encounters that promise to transform all mankind.» — el lado esperanzado del mismo capítulo: los contactados de los cincuenta y los abducidos que reportan encuentros que prometen transformar a la humanidad.

«Chapter 7 recognizes UFO narratives as a theater where tensions between Self and Other play out. UFOs exemplify advanced technology but also echo deep and ongoing social divisions over whether technology is a progressive force beneficial to mankind or a destructive form of hubris. The alien from space is an exemplary Other that embodies earthly misgivings over the value of intellect, whether it leads to the wise and benevolent Space Brothers or the gray, soulless technocrats of abduction accounts.» — el capítulo séptimo: el ovni como teatro de la tensión entre el yo y el otro, y la ambivalencia ante la tecnología.

«These thematic patterns of UFO thought revive prior conflicts over nature versus culture, the wild versus the tamed, and savagery versus civilization in, for example, the Romantic call for a return to nature and the environmentalist rejection of an overly technological society.» — los conflictos previos que esos patrones reviven: naturaleza contra cultura, lo salvaje contra lo domado.

«Though aliens are the vehicle, they only disguise the fact that important parts of UFO discourse represent not visitors from outside but inner issues like how to define self, our human possibilities, and a proper life for mankind.» — la conclusión de ese capítulo: el alienígena es vehículo, y lo que se discute son asuntos internos.

«The two final chapters wrestle with how to explain UFOs. Chapter 8 examines the reach of psychological, social, and cultural contributions as solutions to the mystery, but chapter 9 reckons the shortcomings of human causes to find a reminder that something is left over after all: that besides the meanings imposed on UFOs, traces of an independent phenomenon remain.» — los dos capítulos finales: el alcance de las causas humanas y lo que queda después de ellas.

«In the end a construction of human imagination and cultural meaning cannot explain UFOs, but the answer must factor in experience as essential to understand the origin, shape, and persistence of the UFO stories people tell.» — su conclusión anticipada: ni la imaginación ni el significado cultural bastan, y la experiencia entra como factor necesario.

«For the sake of truth in advertising and to warn the reader of possible conflicts of interest, I will step out from behind the curtain of scholarly anonymity and declare where I stand. I have never seen a UFO or had any sort of anomalous experience.» — sale de detrás de la cortina y declara su posición: nunca vio un ovni ni tuvo experiencia anómala alguna.

«My awareness of UFOs began through the mass-culture route by watching 1950s science-fiction movies; grew to a fascination as I read anything I could find about the subject in newspapers, magazines, and books; and progressed to a long-term commitment by the 1960s as I became a member of NICAP and APRO, the leading ufological organizations of the era. Years later in graduate school when I needed a dissertation topic, I was fortunate to have my old interest and more fortunate still that the Indiana University Folklore Institute supported research into such a dubious subject.» — cuenta su propia trayectoria: cine de ciencia ficción de los cincuenta, membresía en NICAP y APRO, y el Indiana University Folklore Institute como respaldo de la tesis.

«As an insider of sorts I have been privileged to hear experiencers tell their stories and to watch leading ufologists at work, to see the length and breadth of the field, its fine spots and its potholes.» — se describe como insider del campo, con acceso a los relatos de los experienciadores y al trabajo de los ufólogos.

«In the end I side with the believers. My conclusion is not based on personal preference but on familiarity with the evidence. Much of it is sloppy, ambiguous, and unsatisfactory, to be sure; and ufology is a fine mess, crowded with charlatans, true believers, gullibility, and unsubstantiated claims.» — toma partido por los creyentes y en la misma frase describe el estado del campo: charlatanes, crédulos y afirmaciones sin sustento.

«A distinctive and genuinely mysterious phenomenon appears in usually fleeting, sometimes startling glimpses out of the morass of reports.» — lo que dice reconocer bajo el desorden, con el adverbio puesto: vislumbres por lo común fugaces.

«I will not hazard an explanation for UFOs or insist they come from Zeta Reticuli, but I accept J. Allen Hynek’s conclusion that “there exists a phenomenon, described by the contents of UFO reports ..., that is worthy of systematic rigorous study,’ and “the body of data points to an aspect of the natural world not yet explored by science.» — se abstiene de explicar el fenómeno y de suscribir Zeta Reticuli, y adopta en cambio la conclusión de J. Allen Hynek, citada textualmente.

«I will go further and say that enough threads of coherent experience exist to reject cultural explanations as less than the whole story, though cultural influences contribute much to our interest in the phenomenon even as they do much to confuse our understanding of it.» — su tesis final en una frase, con las dos mitades: hay hilos de experiencia coherente, y la cultura contribuye tanto al interés como a la confusión.

«UFOs have come to mean many things to many people. Reports of UFOs, curiosity about their nature and purpose, theories and speculations, disputes and controversies spiral outward until the subject breaks free of narrow scientific considerations. UFOs fly in an atmosphere of implication and possibility as objects of the imagination, subjects for entertainment, humor, commerce, popular belief, and a mystery with something of interest even for people unmoved by aliens or spaceships.» — abre el capítulo primero constatando la dispersión de significados que el tema arrastra.

«One consequence of human interest is human participation in construction of the UFO story. Whether these participants narrate experience or discuss meaning, they relate more than an unvarnished account of a phenomenon. They add and take away, slant and interpret, as they assimilate it into meaningful history.» — su formulación de la participación humana: quien narra añade, quita, inclina e interpreta al asimilar el suceso a una historia con sentido.

«Instead he spotted a chain of nine flat objects north of Rainier and flying southward. Every few seconds one or more of the objects flipped on its side to reflect the sun, as if it were made of polished metal. Silhouetted against the mountain snow, the objects appeared heel-like, with the rounded edge forward and the rear edge slightly pointed, though one object differed from the rest and seemed crescent in shape.» — la descripción que Arnold dio del 24 de junio de 1947: nueve objetos planos, con forma de talón, uno de ellos en creciente.

«The tailless objects resembled no aircraft he had ever seen, and he suspected some new type of experimental jet, a notion reinforced when he timed their passage as they flew in and out among the mountain peaks from Rainier to Mount Adams and calculated an amazing speed of 1,200 miles per hour (Chuck Yeager would not break the sound barrier for another four months). The objects flew south until out of sight beyond Mount Adams after less than three minutes of observation.» — la lectura del propio Arnold, que pensó en un reactor experimental, y el cálculo de 1 200 millas por hora.

«In trying to describe the flipping, jerking motion of the objects, Arnold compared them to a rock or a saucer skipping across water. Before long news writers condensed this description of motion into a vivid and visually suggestive name for the objects themselves. ‘They became flying saucers, springing full-grown into public awareness as an intriguing new expectation of things to see in the sky.» — el punto del capítulo: Arnold comparó el *movimiento* con un platillo rebotando en el agua, y la prensa condensó esa comparación en un nombre para los objetos.

«For two weeks flying saucers became a nationwide craze, starting with a few sightings then multiplying into the hundreds on the Fourth of July. Reports increased until the seventh and took a precipitous drop after the eighth, while by mid-month flying saucers had lost their news value and largely disappeared from the public eye.» — fecha y mide la primera ola: dos semanas, cima el 4 de julio, desplome después del día ocho.

«Ufologist Ted Bloecher found some 850 reports in 140 major newspapers around the country, while systematic searches of smaller newspapers have raised the tally to several thousand, largely concentrated into a five-day period.» — adjudica el recuento al ufólogo Ted Bloecher, y da la cifra corregida por búsquedas en prensa menor.

«On July 4 Captain E. J. Smith, a pilot for United Airlines, was about to take off from Boise, Idaho, to Seattle when someone asked him what he thought about flying saucers. "I'll believe them when I see them,’ he answered; a few minutes later, he did. Just after 9 p.m. Smith and his copilot spotted four large circular objects flying in formation against the evening sky, appearing flat on the bottom and rough on top. A stewardess confirmed the objects before they disappeared to the northwest, then another formation of similar objects appeared on the left for several minutes before flying off.» — el caso del capitán E. J. Smith de United Airlines, que dijo que creería al ver y vio minutos después.

«The disk shape had appeared from time to time in illustrations for science fiction and on the cover of magazines like Popular Science to depict futuristic aviation designs, but images of round craft enjoyed no special favor in mass or popular culture, and the jet plane or rocket ship image was the odds-on favorite when reports simply reflected widespread cultural expectations.» — atiende a la objeción cultural: el disco existía en ilustración de ciencia ficción, pero lo esperable en la cultura de masas era el avión a reacción o el cohete.

«Some ufologists regard Kenneth Arnold standing at the pivot between a saucerless past and a disk-infested future as reason to think a genuine visitation of spaceships began in 1947.» — expone el argumento de los ufólogos que hacen de Arnold la bisagra entre un pasado sin platillos y un futuro lleno de discos.

«Skeptics reject that supposition because a telling“uh-oh’ factor spoils the argument—after all, Arnold may have started the flying saucer craze, but he neither saw nor spoke of flying saucers. What he reported were heel-shaped objects, but what the public heard through the press, thanks to a moment of creative license, was an ever-so-suggestive name, and no sooner was it coined than countless descriptions repeated it to the exclusion of all others. This is clearly an odd way for aliens to behave.» — y expone la objeción escéptica: Arnold ni vio ni dijo platillos, sino objetos con forma de talón.

«Some critics are ready to declare victory at this point and overlook another twist the story has in store.» — no le concede la victoria al escéptico y anuncia el giro que sigue.

«While most 1947 flying saucers lived up to their given name without need of help, newspaper articles rounded off differences in the remaining accounts until every strange object in the sky became a flying saucer in spite of itself. Yet a reading of what observers actually said reveals a degree of variety within the aerial armada of 1947 and displaces some of the burden of cultural influence from the observers and onto the media, where, then as now, considerable weight truly belongs.» — su conclusión sobre el caso: la variedad real desplaza parte de la carga de la influencia cultural del testigo hacia los medios.

«Such ideas update historical patterns of thought found in apocalyptic and millenarian beliefs, in recurrent scares over subversive outsiders like witches, immigrants, and Communists, and in expectations of a better world that have taken both sacred and secular form over the years.» — los antecedentes de esa esperanza: creencias apocalípticas y milenaristas, y sustos recurrentes por forasteros subversivos —brujas, inmigrantes, comunistas.

«Kenneth Arnold was a traveling salesman for modern times. Thirty-two years old in 1947, he already owned his own company and piloted his small airplane throughout the Pacific Northwest» — presenta a Kenneth Arnold, vendedor y piloto por el noroeste del Pacífico; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente con su familiaridad con el cielo.

«The flying saucers of 1947 represent a stereotype entrenched in the newspaper version where writers insisted on the flying disk image irrespective of observers’ statements.» — sostiene que el estereotipo del disco vive en la versión periodística, impuesta contra lo que decían los observadores.

«A few reports describe objects that are not disk shaped at all but cylindrical, conical, spherical, oval, V-shaped, and even resembling a propeller.» — el catálogo de formas que la prensa aplanó: cilíndrica, cónica, esférica, oval, en uve y hasta con aspecto de hélice.

«a sight like an overturned washtub, or, in the report of a young private pilot flying over North Carolina, a form like a squashed barrel.» — sigue el catálogo con la tina volteada y el barril aplastado que reportó un piloto privado sobre Carolina del Norte.

«An alarm sounded on a UFO Web site in mid-December with stories that a U.S. fighter shot down a UFO in 1998 or during the Gulf War of 1990-1991 and the Iraqi military hid the surviving aliens from capture by the Americans. Since then the aliens’ technology had provided the Iraqis with advanced weapons capable of defeating any earthly enemy, the most impressive example being a pack of bioengineered scorpions the size of cows.» — Bullard cuenta con ironía el rumor de 2002: un caza estadounidense derribó un ovni y los iraquíes escondieron a los sobrevivientes, de quienes habrían sacado escorpiones del tamaño de vacas.

«The Russian newspaper Pravda, once the staid official voice of the Soviet Union but now effectively a tabloid, picked up the UFO story at the end of January and added a tissue of rumors from Arab journalists and a Russian colonel, who claimed to have examined the wreckage of a circular craft with three seats designed for occupants the size of children.» — sigue la ruta del rumor hasta Pravda, que le añadió periodistas árabes y un coronel ruso con restos de una nave de tres asientos.

«A social action seemingly so benign in its goals nevertheless met with widespread suspicion because the chief promoter was Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, an often inflammatory advocate of racial separatism and a leader forever embroiled in controversy for his extremist views.» — sitúa la Marcha del Millón de Hombres de 1995 y a su promotor Louis Farrakhan, de la Nación del Islam.

«UFOs sailed into the publicity buildup for the upcoming march in a speech by Farrakhan on September 17. Initially enthusiastic listeners fell silent and shifted uneasily in their seats when he announced that his inspiration came from a vision of a UFO flying him to a mother ship, where he received messages from the deceased founder of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad.» — narra el discurso del 17 de septiembre en que Farrakhan dijo haber recibido su inspiración en una nave nodriza, de boca del difunto Elijah Muhammad.

«Elijah Muhammad's mentor and cofounder of the Nation of Islam was Fard Muhammad, who announced in the 1930s that the Japanese had built an enormous airplane called the Mother Plane (or Mother of Planes, Mother Ship, or Mother Wheel), and it would soon release a fleet of smaller airplanes to destroy all white people in America with poison bombs.» — rastrea la doctrina hasta Fard Muhammad, que en los años treinta hablaba de un enorme avión japonés, la Mother Plane, y de bombas de veneno contra los blancos de América.

«The Mother Plane is oval or circular and the smaller “baby” planes are round; perhaps, Elijah Muhammad said, they are the flying saucers so often reported.» — consigna la identificación que el propio Elijah Muhammad propuso entre los aviones pequeños y los platillos volantes reportados.

«As Nation of Islam mythology evolved, it replaced the Japanese with God and a council of twentyfour imams, alternately identified as black scientists and as builders of the great ship. A rebel scientist in this group created the white race by selective breeding and thereby introduced demons into the divine order, an offense the Mother Plane would stamp out in the last days.» — sigue la evolución del mito: los japoneses reemplazados por Dios y un consejo de veinticuatro imames, y un científico rebelde como creador de la raza blanca.

«The keynote for the Mother Plane was Ezekiel’s Wheel in the Bible, its symbolism at once preserved as-an eschatological destroyer of evil and reinterpreted to subvert traditional Judeo-Christian meanings.» — la clave de la Mother Plane es la Rueda de Ezequiel, conservada como destructora escatológica del mal y a la vez vuelta contra el sentido judeocristiano.

«In Nation of Islam doctrine, the Judeo-Christian tradition is inauthentic and evil, the enemy of the black man’s true religion, Islam; yet the power of white man’s science appears desirable enough to incorporate into the basic creed of the sect. As this creed translates old myths into new, it stakes a claim on the white man’s technology as in fact the rightful invention and property of the black man.» — describe la operación doble de la doctrina: rechazar la tradición judeocristiana y reclamar como propia la técnica del hombre blanco.

«This changing belief system adapts UFOs here as physical objects, there as visionary images, and then again as a reworking of biblical prophecy, while at the same time borrowing UFO sightings as confirmation of belief and UFO abductions as a model for Louis Farrakhan» — resume cómo el sistema acomoda el ovni por turnos: objeto físico, imagen visionaria, reelaboración de profecía bíblica y modelo para las visiones de Farrakhan.

«A genuine spaceship flashed through the skies over nine states from the Midwest to the East Coast on the night of March 3, 1968. Two or three gleaming starlike lights began the course and several more appeared by the end. This promising story takes a disappointing turn when the craft proves Soviet rather than extraterrestrial, the Zond IV moon probe burning in the upper atmosphere a hundred miles high after an unsuccessful attempt to leave orbit; but reports to the UFO investigative unit of the Air Force, Project Blue Book, offer exceptional insight into eyewitness conceptions and how they leave their mark on descriptions.» — el caso del 3 de marzo de 1968: la nave era real y era soviética, la sonda lunar Zond IV ardiendo en la alta atmósfera, y los reportes a Blue Book sirven de laboratorio.

«About thirty of seventy-eight reports include detailed descriptions, a mixture of accurate, subtly inaccurate, and grossly distorted accounts. Twenty of the witnesses providing extended details reported no sound, and only one thought he heard something. Twelve people suggested outright that the objects were meteors or space debris reentry, and the same number correctly reported straight, uniform motion.» — mide el material: de setenta y ocho reportes, unos treinta con descripción detallada, y una minoría acertó con meteoro o reentrada.

«Many inaccuracies belong to categories of poor choice of words, like the seventeen references to the lights flying in “formation” when a less suggestive term like “pattern” would serve better, or to typical human difficulties in estimating altitude, speed, and size.» — distingue el error de palabra —formación donde bastaba patrón— del error de estimación de altura, velocidad y tamaño.

«The serious inaccuracies are more varied. Seven people claimed to see rocket, cigar, or saucer-shaped objects, six spoke of a change in direction, three called the lights windows, and two implied the lights were attached to a dark body.» — los errores graves, contados uno por uno: cohetes, puros y platillos, cambios de dirección, ventanas y un cuerpo oscuro.

«When conception goes astray, it can lead an observation very, very far off the mark. A Tennessee witness who watched the reentry with her husband and the local mayor illustrates the potential for extreme error in an account based on misconception.» — la regla que saca del caso: cuando la concepción se desvía, la observación se va lejísimos.

«Here is proof beyond any shadow of a doubt that a spectacular UFO experience does not require the attendance of a spectacular UFO. Sometimes the truth is not out there but in ourselves, in beliefs so powerful they reshape a conventional sight into the image of expectation.» — su conclusión sobre el Zond IV: una experiencia ovni espectacular no requiere un ovni espectacular.

«In modern Western culture mysterious flying or luminous objects and strange beings usually find their way into the UFO file whether or not they fit comfortably within the spaceship category. We face a dearth of credible alternatives now that the supernatural has fallen into disrepute, while UFOs have become acceptable enough to seem inevitable in such a scenario.» — sostiene que en la cultura occidental todo lo raro del cielo acaba en el expediente ovni por falta de alternativas creíbles, caído el sobrenatural.

«The fact remains that UFOs represent a cultural category defined by the ideas of our time, place, and background.» — la tesis en una línea: el ovni es una categoría cultural definida por las ideas de una época, un lugar y una procedencia.

«Twenty workers returning from the fields watched a luminous sphere about one and a half meters in diameter roll across the ground. Terrified women gathered their children and fled into the bush. The ball reached an observation tower and seemed to climb the three stories to the top, then appeared to burst into flames.» — narra el caso de Mutare, Zimbabue, del 15 de agosto de 1981: veinte trabajadores y una esfera luminosa que trepa una torre de observación.

«Muchena saw three men observing the flames and ran toward them, assuming his boss was one of the three. They turned to the sound of Muchena’s call, and he realized they were strangers in every sense. Tall and luminous, they wore silver suits, and a power from them caused him to fall to the ground, where he lay until aware that the light and the men were gone.» — sigue con el encuentro del capataz Clifford Muchena y los tres hombres altos y luminosos de traje plateado.

«Muchena had heard of astronauts but had never seen a picture of one and did not credit the claim that anyone had visited the moon. He knew nothing of UFOs. At the same time, he had a ready explanation for the men—they were spirits of his ancestors.» — el punto del caso: Muchena no sabía de ovnis ni creía en el alunizaje, y tenía explicación lista, eran espíritus de sus antepasados.

«crocodile teeth instead of silvery suits, Muchena considered for a moment. “Yes,” he answered, “but times change!» — el intercambio con la investigadora Cynthia Hind, que objetó el vestuario; la respuesta de Muchena queda tal cual.

«If feverish imaginations tried to dream up a UFO story as convincing as it is astonishing, they could hardly do better than the following: Choose a setting of utmost seriousness. Make it a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base and have the UFO trespass into forbidden airspace one night to hover over a nuclear missile silo. Let's make certain the UFO is spectacular, say an orange-lighted behemoth the size of a football field and close to the ground, lighting up the countryside with an unearthly glow. Alarms from electronic sensors signal an intrusion and Sabotage Alert Teams speed off to investigate. Big men with guns though they are, these soldiers refuse an order to press near the giant disk looming ahead because its presence completely unnerves them. The UFO soon begins to rise and radar picks up the object. Two jet interceptors race to the area, but the UFO suddenly blinks out. The jets circle for a while, but only when they depart does the object light up again. Ascending swiftly into the starry sky, the unknown blip disappears from radar at 200,000 feet. A good story needs a thrilling coda, so envision the next morning when inspection teams check out the missile and discover that the targeting computer underwent some mysterious reprogramming while the UFO hovered nearby.» — construye a propósito la historia ideal —base del Strategic Air Command, disco del tamaño de un campo de futbol, interceptores, computadora del misil reprogramada— antes de decir de dónde salió.

«Just such a story exists not merely at the top of a proponent's wish list but also as part of UFO literature. The location is Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and the date is November 7, 1975. Who could ask for more compelling proof of UFO reality? The Malmstrom case has all the answers to beat down every doubt—or would, if the story bore anything like a resemblance to the facts.» — señala que esa historia existe en la literatura ufológica con nombre y fecha: Malmstrom, Montana, 7 de noviembre de 1975.

«What the Malmstrom case proves with decisiveness is not the existence of UFOs but the readiness of fictitious UFO tales to spring up and displace the truth.» — lo que a su juicio prueba el caso: la facilidad con que un relato ovni ficticio brota y desplaza a la verdad.

«An intrusion did indeed occur at Malmstrom on this date, along with a series of incursions during late October and early November at other air bases—Loring in Maine, Wurtsmith in Michigan, Minot in North Dakota, and Falconbridge in Ontario.» — concede que la intrusión ocurrió, y la sitúa en una serie con Loring, Wurtsmith, Minot y Falconbridge.

«Remarkably little publicity attended these incidents at the time. Montana was rife with UFO activity, and reports of a mystery helicopter hovering over a missile site prompted Air Force officials to cooperate with local law enforcement in investigation of strange lights and apparent cattle mutilations; but the wire services did not pick up stories from the Montana press, and UFO investigators, usually alert to any sort of suggestive activity, largely overlooked an exciting two weeks when UFOs entangled with national security.» — subraya lo que le llama la atención: casi nadie cubrió los hechos cuando ocurrieron, ni siquiera los investigadores del ramo.

«Documents obtained through FOIA searches confirmed a spectacular series of incidents and led to a flurry of press interest. An article in the Sunday-supplement newspaper magazine, Parade, on December 10, 1978, provoked congressional questions. On January 14, 1979, the New York Times gave brief coverage to the FOIA findings but said nothing about the SAC base intrusions, focusing instead on the discovery of CIA interest in UFO surveillance over the years. A few days later a Washington Post article paid attention to the UFO aspect of the story and discussed the air base intrusions, but despite these revelations, the reporters failed to pursue any further investigations. Only on October 14 did mention of the air base intrusions appear in the New York Times Magazine, when it finally considered the story as news fit to print, four years after the fact.» — sigue la cobertura de prensa documento por documento: Parade, el New York Times, el Washington Post y por fin el New York Times Magazine, cuatro años después.

«What the documents have to say about the Malmstrom case is at once remarkable and confusing. They confirm UFO sightings, but they spread over a week, from November 3 to November 10, with two tumultuous nights of extensive activity.» — lee los documentos como confirmatorios y confusos a la vez, y corrige la fecha única por una semana entera.

«The terse military log entries are tantalizing for what they say and tormenting for what they leave out. We can read enough into the stingy details to know that Venus and Jupiter were the intruders in some of the cases, while the report of objects ascending as the sun rises is a classic description of stars or planets fading with the dawn.» — adjudica parte de los avistamientos a Venus y Júpiter, y lee el ascenso al amanecer como el desvanecimiento clásico de los astros.

«The cat-and-mouse game of the UFO suggests intelligent control and the skeptical solution—that the brightness of the jet exhaust from the interceptors dimmed astronomical bodies as a contrast effect—does not seem very persuasive.» — aquí rechaza la explicación escéptica: el contraste del escape de los interceptores no le parece convincente frente al juego del gato y el ratón.

«When researchers asked for further documentation, they received the response that all other reports from the time of the incidents had been destroyed—surely a remarkable if not a criminal course of action, considering the security implications of any sort of intrusion involying these sensitive installations.» — consigna la destrucción de los demás reportes y la califica de notable, si no criminal, dadas las implicaciones de seguridad.

«Whatever else about the Malmstrom story dangles in uncertainty, there is no mistaking the glaring contrast between the documentary version and the version in UFO literature. No document reports that a security team balked before a UFO the size of a football field or that radar tracked anything to 200,000 feet. Nowhere do we read of interference with Minuteman missiles.» — compara punto por punto la versión documental con la de la literatura ovni: no hay equipo acobardado, ni radar a doscientos mil pies, ni interferencia con los Minuteman.

«The answer lies with filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe, whose research on cattle mutilations led to a prize-winning documentary, A Strange Harvest, first broadcast in 1980. She had no interest in mutilations in 1975, but one night her brother phoned her with some intriguing UFO hearsay from Malmstrom. He said that a huge UFO shone a light “brighter than daylight” on one of the missile silos; security guards refused to approach the object; jets attempted to intercept it, but it blinked out until they departed; and targeting information of a missile computer had changed. She later recognized the possible significance of these claims in connection with the concurrent cattle mutilation epidemic in Montana.» — rastrea el origen de los añadidos hasta la cineasta Linda Moulton Howe y un rumor que le llegó por su hermano.

«More than two years passed before the story became national news, and then the source was the National Enquirer.» — fecha la entrada del caso a la prensa nacional, y la fuente: el National Enquirer.

«A Pentagon “leak” was the basis for the article, but its specific places and dates enabled ufologists to try out a new research tool, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and their reward more than repaid the effort.» — el artículo salió de una filtración del Pentágono, y sus datos permitieron estrenar la Freedom of Information Act como herramienta de investigación.

«The radar reports are less easy to explain, though skeptics suggest that birds were responsible for the contacts.» — consigna la propuesta escéptica para los ecos de radar —pájaros— y admite que ahí la explicación cuesta más.

«Documents recovered through FOIA requests confirm that a group of ICBMs became inoperable and no reason for the failure was found despite extensive technical examinations. The SAC termed the incident “cause for grave concern,’ but the role of UFOs remains undocumented» — sobre el incidente de 1967: los documentos confirman que un grupo de misiles quedó inoperante sin causa hallada, y no documentan papel alguno de los ovnis.

«The only reference to UFOs describes them as a rumor with no foundation, since a security team questioned about the night of the missile incident asserted that no unusual aerial activity took place.» — la única mención de ovnis en el expediente los llama rumor sin fundamento, y el equipo de seguridad negó actividad aérea inusual.

«Most of the information about UFOs originates with an officer present in one of the missile command centers, but his testimony came to light only after publicity about the 1975 Malmstrom incidents and remains the word of a single individual.» — pesa el testimonio: viene de un solo oficial y salió a la luz solo después de la publicidad de 1975.

«The documented aspects of the 1975 Malmstrom case remain intriguing but fragmentary. The most spectacular and clear-cut UFO incidents appear only in the UFO literature.» — la fórmula con que cierra el caso: lo documentado es fragmentario y lo espectacular vive solo en la literatura ufológica.

«Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood, two pioneer FOIA researchers who publicized their findings in Clear Intent (1984), began their chapter on Malmstrom with the story told by Linda Howe but identified her as the source and then supplemented the account from recovered documents. Howe readily admitted that her information was hearsay.» — reconoce que Fawcett y Greenwood, en Clear Intent, identificaron a Linda Howe como fuente y que ella misma admitió que era de oídas.

«Those fine lines of distinction have faded with retellings until the rumor now fronts as the truth in print and on the Internet, even in a compendium of record like The UFO Evidence, Volume 2, and the UFO Briefing Document, a collection of the “best available evidence” presented to Congress in 1995.» — sigue el borrado de esa distinción hasta que el rumor pasa por verdad en compendios de registro y en un documento entregado al Congreso en 1995.

«Malmstrom highlights the misfortune that many UFO stories are really two stories, one factual and one distorted with mythic elements.» — la lección del caso: muchas historias ovni son dos historias, una factual y otra deformada por elementos míticos.

«An intriguing account of air base intrusions by UFOs remains to be told, whether the cause lies with alien invaders or maintainers of nuclear weapons confused by stars or military maneuvers to test guard personnel for preparedness. The treatments at hand tell another story, one of newspapers pursuing their own agendas, UFO writers substituting congenial rumors for less riveting facts, and fictitious events gaining credit as substantive evidence of alien visitation.» — deja abierto cuál sea la causa de las intrusiones —invasores, confusión con estrellas o maniobras de prueba— y describe la otra historia, la de las agendas periodísticas y los rumores cómodos.

«In the realm of UFO belief this confusion of fact and fiction is not a scandal so much as business as usual.» — y no la llama escándalo: la llama rutina del campo.

«By 2 a.m. on September 3, 1965, Norman Muscarellos long walk home was almost over. Eighteen years old and bound for Navy boot camp in three weeks, he had sold his car and tried to hitchhike back to Exeter, New Hampshire, after a visit to his girlfriend twelve miles away, but rides were few so late at night and he walked most of the way.» — abre el caso de Exeter con Norman Muscarello, de dieciocho años, caminando de vuelta a casa en New Hampshire.

«The lights flashed in rapid sequence—one, two, three, four, five, four, three, two, one—with only one light visible at a time and the entire cycle completed every two seconds.» — el detalle que hará el caso: cinco luces rojas encendiéndose en secuencia, una a la vez, con ciclo de dos segundos.

«The brightness lighted up the surrounding area and prevented him from seeing if any solid object was behind the lights, but they remained together as they moved over a field, passed behind a second house and some trees, and then rose again with motions like a fluttering leaf.» — la descripción del movimiento, con el símil de la hoja que revolotea.

«At one point the lights drew so near that Muscarello dived into a ditch for fear he would be hit. When they flew away into the field again, he ran to the Russell house and knocked on the door, but no one answered. When a car approached he flagged it down and rode to the Exeter police station after observing the lights for some fifteen minutes.» — cómo terminó el avistamiento: Muscarello se tiró a una zanja y luego paró un coche hacia la comisaría de Exeter.

«Impressed by Muscarellos agitation, the officer on duty radioed Officer Eugene Bertrand to investigate. At 1 a.m. Bertrand had found a frightened woman motorist stopped on the roadside and she reported that a large light had followed her, but he dismissed the incident; now a little before 3 a.m. he carried Muscarello back to the scene of his sighting.» — la respuesta policial: el oficial Eugene Bertrand, que una hora antes había desestimado el reporte de una automovilista asustada.

«They saw nothing as they walked into the field, but shortly after dogs began to howl and livestock in a barn began to kick, Muscarello shouted and Bertrand turned to see the flashing lights rise from behind some trees.» — el segundo avistamiento, precedido por los perros aullando y el ganado coceando en el establo.

«Bertrand described the lights as attached to an object as big as a barn and a hundred feet overhead. “It lit up the entire field, and two nearby houses turned completely red. It stopped, hovered, and turned on a dime.’ He likened the brightness of the lights to facing automobile headlights at close distance.» — la estimación de Bertrand: un objeto del tamaño de un granero a treinta metros de altura.

«Fearing radiation burns, he pulled Muscarello back to the cruiser. Bertrand radioed the station and another officer, David Hunt, arrived in time to see the red lights as they flew off into the southeast at slow speed and always about a hundred feet above the ground, after being visible some ten minutes. The animals then quieted down again. The lights departed toward the town of Hampton, and a call to the police station from Hampton soon followed as an excited man reported that a UFO was chasing him.» — el cierre del episodio, con el tercer oficial David Hunt como testigo y una llamada desde Hampton.

«The Exeter close encounter became an instant cornerstone UFO case, supported by the statements of Muscarello and the two police officers, investigated at length by ufologist Raymond E. Fowler and Saturday Review columnist John G., Fuller, who published the story of his inquiries in Incident at Exeter (1966). Fowler's report is included in the Congressional Record after a hearing on UFOs by the House Committee on Armed Services in 1966.» — sitúa el caso en la literatura: investigado por el ufólogo Raymond E. Fowler y por John G. Fuller, cuyo Incident at Exeter es de 1966, y con el informe de Fowler en el Congressional Record.

«Bertrand and Hunt countered the stars-and-planets explanation by pointing out that the night was clear and the lights were near the ground, while Bertrand had served four years in Air Force refueling operations and knew what aircraft looked like at night. A helicopter could not have been responsible because the UFO was silent, and the military maneuvers in question had ended by 2 a.m.» — reúne las objeciones de los dos policías a la explicación astronómica, incluida la experiencia de Bertrand en reabastecimiento aéreo.

«Faced with the officers’ objections, the Blue Book staff reclassified the sighting as unidentified.» — consigna el desenlace administrativo: Blue Book reclasificó el caso como no identificado.

«A newspaper reporter offered the answer that an advertising airplane was responsible, but Fowler found that the only aerial advertising company in the area had not flown its airplane between August 21 and September 1o—and, anyway, what advertiser would fly so late that the only audience was owls and crickets?» — descarta la avioneta publicitaria con el dato de Fowler sobre la única compañía de la zona, y con una pregunta de sentido común.

«Astronomical bodies are responsible beyond a reasonable doubt for many of Fuller's cases,” but the Muscarello sighting stands apart with an abundance of detail that simply does not square with the Jupiter explanation. The planet can account for neither the systematic flashing of a series of lights nor a red color bright enough to bathe the surrounding buildings, while the movement of the UFO from near to far or above and below the surrounding trees bears no resemblance to the rising of a planet.» — concede que los astros explican muchos de los casos de Fuller y sostiene que el de Muscarello no cabe ahí, por el destello sistemático, el rojo y el movimiento.

«Humans are capable of extremes in observational error, but in this case only by extremes of ignoring some testimony and force-fitting the rest can Jupiter even begin to serve.» — el límite que le pone a la explicación por error: para que Júpiter sirva hay que ignorar parte del testimonio y forzar el resto.

«This proposal fits some aspects of the reports but raises its own host of objections. With the road too deserted for Muscarello to hitch a ride, a practical joker chose an impractical time of day for his pranks. Trees are the bane of the kite flier, but this foolhardy prankster was fortunate enough to fly his device over and among them without any close encounters of the entangling kind. March is the month of kite flying for good reason—strong and steady winds. According to weather records, a westerly breeze of only five miles per hour was blowing that night, perhaps not impossible conditions but certainly challenging for lifting a kite loaded with lights and wires off the ground.» — empieza a desarmar la hipótesis del papalote: la hora impropia para una broma, los árboles y un viento de apenas ocho kilómetros por hora.

«The Exeter UFO changed places quite a bit, and with little wind to help, the operator would have to run around with superhuman athleticism to shift the kite here and there over hundreds of yards and finally off into the distance. So much vigorous motion also would risk calling attention to the prankster in the illumination of his own lights.» — segunda objeción: con tan poco viento el bromista habría tenido que correr con atletismo sobrehumano, y sus propias luces lo habrían delatado.

«For lights strung along the tether line of a kite to present an angle of sixty degrees, observers would have to view the lights from an orientation perpendicular to the plane, with the kite always to the left or right of the observer. If the observer ever faced the angle head-on or from the rear, the lights would stack up in a vertical line. This arrangement never occurs in the reports yet seems unavoidable given the considerable movement of both object and witnesses» — tercera objeción, geométrica: desde ciertos ángulos las luces del hilo se verían apiladas en vertical, y eso no ocurre en ningún reporte.

«Officer Bertrand’s statement that the bottom lights pointed forward when the object moved raises a final objection. A western wind would bear the kite east from the tether point, so the uppermost light on the line would point farthest eastward, Since the UFO moved off to the east, the upper light would lead if the object were a kite, but Bertrand’s description contradicts that expectation. How a solid object could present the reported configuration is equally baffling, but for a string of reasons the kite hypothesis fails to fly.» — cuarta objeción y remate: con viento del oeste la luz superior iría al frente, y Bertrand describió lo contrario.

«The incident at Exeter leaves three lessons in its wake: newspaper accounts and even a professional reporter like Fuller are prone to introduce errors, skeptics will grasp at any solution as long as it is conventional, and some UFO reports hold onto their strangeness even after critical examination.» — las tres lecciones del caso, con la del escéptico incluida: se agarra de cualquier solución con tal de que sea convencional.

«Stereotypes remake the verbal record at the expense of accuracy, fiction mixes with fact, and religious, political, or entertainment motives rewrite the story to serve purposes unrelated to observation. While human observers are quite good on the whole, some few are capable of extreme distortion.» — enumera los modos de la deformación: estereotipo, mezcla de ficción y hecho, y motivos religiosos, políticos o de entretenimiento.

«Most sobering of all, not even experience is pure but mediated by cultural frameworks so that perceptual and conceptual errors can confuse observation, expectations replace reality with imagined images, preconceptions shape memory and recall of events.» — lo que llama lo más aleccionador: ni la experiencia es pura, porque el marco cultural media la percepción y el recuerdo.

«Many people have internalized UFOs so that they exist in imagination as if they belonged to the physical world. True or false, a UFO experience remains profoundly personal to some people, memorable or even life-changing.» — constata la interiorización: para mucha gente el ovni existe en la imaginación como si fuera del mundo físico.

«Beliefs—in the sense of propositions taken for true whether or not they are proven so—solidify rumor, observation, and imagining into social and personal facts so that UFOs have real-world consequence whether or not they have a real-world presence.» — define creencia y saca la consecuencia: el ovni tiene efectos reales tenga o no presencia real.

«External or interpersonal representations of UFOs typically take the form of texts. ‘The texts may range from narrative testimonies of witnesses about a light in the sky or an eerie abduction to the rhetorical writings of interpreters offering planet of origin, mission statements, and exposés of official cover-ups. Even the nonanecdotal evidence of photographs, radar tracking, and ground traces is not self-evidently out of this world, but it requires textual explications to relate this evidence to UFOs and lay out its provenance.» — sostiene que hasta la evidencia no anecdótica —fotografía, radar, rastros— necesita texto que la ligue al ovni y declare su procedencia.

«As soon as speakers or writers organize their thinking into a text, they shape memories into a shared language and forms of expression, whereupon texts take on an autonomous life with social dynamics guiding formulation, transmission, adaptation, and variation.» — el momento en que el texto se vuelve autónomo y queda regido por dinámicas sociales de transmisión y variación.

«The UFO mystery is not synonymous with the textual truths and illusions created in its name, but it is nevertheless inseparable from them.» — la fórmula que gobierna el resto del libro: el misterio no es lo mismo que sus textos, y es inseparable de ellos.

«The Muscarello incident occurred near power lines but not over them, and Klass suggested that electric plasmas might separate from the wires and float some distance across the countryside» — objeta la propuesta de Klass con la posición: el incidente ocurrió cerca de las líneas de alta tensión, no encima de ellas.

«though these proposals did not meet with support from technical experts.» — y añade que los técnicos no respaldaron esos plasmas desprendidos.

«These examples only begin to enumerate the ways observations blend with ideas to create a human truth distinct from historical truth. The mystery starts with observations,» — recapitula la galería de casos: la verdad humana que resulta no es la verdad histórica.

«and whatever their source they ground UFOs ona platform of experience. At the same time, the examples make clear that the phenomenal elements combine with additions and modifications that originate in belief or interpretation.» — y aun así, dice, las observaciones ponen el piso de experiencia sobre el que lo demás se añade.

«Folklorists recognize that categories of narratives seem to reflect basic modes of expression for human concerns. Certain narrative types recur as fundamental or simple forms (einfache Formen),» — Bullard toma del folclore la idea de formas simples, contenedores estructurales de la expresión humana.

«An experience narrative may be a rough account of a personal encounter or a polished, widely circulated story like the popular urban legends of today, but in either case the narrative casts protagonists as victims rather than heroes, ordinary people going about ordinary business when some out-of-the-ordinary occurrence threatens them.» — el rasgo que le importa de la leyenda: el protagonista es víctima y no héroe, gente común en asuntos comunes.

«UFO abduction reports are usually stories of victimization with the captive guilty of nothing more than driving on a lonely midnight road, while even the best of citizens tucked away in their beds awake to find small gray intruders gathered round about.» — aplica la forma al material ovni: el abducido no es culpable de nada más que manejar de noche o estar dormido en su cama.

«The simple sighting report foregoes the extravagance of close encounters but still preserves the gist of the legend form, that element of a brush with the inexplicable, that transgression of boundaries when the extranormal breaks momentarily into the everyday world.» — hasta el reporte simple conserva el meollo de la forma: el roce con lo inexplicable, la transgresión del límite.

«If the UFO mystery begins with individual experiential texts, the subsequent discussions that add related cases, interpretations, glosses, controversies, and associations also belong within UFO discourse. All such UFO talk integrates into a systematized or partially systematized network to form a loose, protean, but unitary state.» — todo el discurso ovni —casos, glosas, controversias— se integra en una red que forma un estado unitario, aunque suelto y proteico.

«The functionalist’s center of gravity, so to speak, shifts from myth as textual product to myth as social process, from a story that satisfies curiosity to a master plan for living,» — resume el desplazamiento funcionalista: del mito como producto textual al mito como proceso social.

«One explanation attributes this strangeness to primitive, prescientific thinking with an anthropomorphized view of the natural world.” The storms that toss people about then become fits of divine anger, death enters the world because of a mistake or a bad choice, a bite of an apple best left alone.» — expone la explicación por pensamiento precientífico y antropomórfico de la naturaleza.

«Another proposal traces the origin of myths to the unconscious conflicts of dreams. These conflicts acquire dramatic and narrative form in myths but keep the irrational plot progressions of dreaming.» — expone la explicación por el sueño: los conflictos inconscientes toman forma narrativa y conservan la lógica del soñar.

«Anthropologists have long contrasted myth with science and rationality as distinctive ways of thinking.» — recuerda el contraste antiguo entre mito y ciencia como modos de pensar.

«Ideas of myth proliferate in popular as well as scholarly thought. One common popular notion defines myth as false belief, another treats myth as the way things should have happened.» — las dos nociones populares de mito: creencia falsa, y cómo debieron ocurrir las cosas.

«Both usages recur in The Myth of the Titanic, a book that treats many fictitious incidents that have accumulated around this famous disaster. Several iconic scenes never happened or differed significantly from familiar portrayals in literature or the movies, thereby qualifying familiar versions of the sinking as mythic in the simplistic sense of false history.» — usa el libro sobre el Titanic para mostrar las dos nociones a la vez.

«Yet these versions are not simply wrong; they are wrong in a particular way: They deepen from mere error into myth because they retell history to express human ideals.» — la distinción que le interesa: no están mal a secas, están mal de un modo particular, porque cuentan la historia para expresar ideales.

«A meaningless accident acquires the shape of purposeful tragedy when essential dramatic roles of heroes and villains emerge, and the necessary hubris enters with a boast that God himself could not sink the ship. The passengers and crew reaffirm cherished civilized values as the men obey the rule of “women and children first,’ then resign themselves to “be British’ and die like gentlemen when no lifeboats remain.» — los elementos que convierten el accidente en tragedia con propósito: héroes, villanos, la hybris del barco que ni Dios podría hundir.

«Such stories bear repeating whether they happened or not because they are too good not to be true.» — la fórmula con que explica la persistencia del relato mítico.

«A third idea active in common usage applies the term to a body of stories interconnected to portray a fictitious world, William Faulkner invented the mythic southern microcosm of Yoknapatawpha County, where a vivid fabric of social classes and family histories sets a backdrop for literary drama;» — tercera noción popular: el mito como mundo ficticio interconectado, y el condado de Yoknapatawpha de Faulkner como ejemplo.

«the expanding universe of Star Trek is sometimes called mythic as its technology, aliens, and generations of characters lend depth toa future history of human space-faring. Though altogether a fiction, the Star Trek saga piles layer on layer to acquire the density of real life. The same can be said of versatile literary characters like Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Superman, and Dracula.» — extiende esa noción a Star Trek y a los personajes que sobreviven a sus autores.

«They are so full of possibilities that they outlive their creators, never destitute of an audience and destined to have writers continue their adventures. Not just any theme or actor enjoys such a long life, but the exploratory quest of Star Trek and the dark, amoral sexuality of the vampire touch deep, abiding concerns as readily as archetypal characters of classical myth.» — y explica esa supervivencia por el asunto que tocan, no por el personaje: la búsqueda exploratoria, la sexualidad amoral del vampiro.

«myths always present at least one humanly or physically impossible event like metamorphosis or magic flight.» — la generalización que retiene sobre el mito, y que arranca al pie de la plana anterior: siempre trae un suceso imposible.

«Whatever myth explains, reflects, or reinforces how it accomplishes its task is unmistakable—the terms are unremittingly human, always centered within the personal or social sphere.» — lo que le importa del mito no es qué explica sino cómo: siempre en términos humanos, dentro de la esfera personal o social.

«A scientific theory loses the appearances it describes in symbols and mathematics or, like quantum theory, breaks loose entirely from everyday points of reference. No room remains for easygoing commonsense judgments, no excuse for playing favorites among suppositions. Something impersonal, uncongenial, and undemocratic characterizes scientific thought.» — sigue el contraste: la teoría pierde las apariencias en símbolos y matemáticas, y no deja lugar al juicio de sentido común.

«To sum up, the characteristics of myth leads to an eclectic list of more descriptive than definitive value, but unavoidably so. A single clear essence no longer exists for a term with so many popular and scholarly usages. The preceding discussion touches on no more than a few meanings, but it captures the attributes most helpful for understanding the relationship of myth to UFOs:» — advierte que su lista de atributos es descriptiva y no definitoria, porque el término ya no tiene una esencia única.

«At first glance nothing seems less compatible with myth than UFOs. They are technological and futuristic rather than sacred and primeval. They call for explanation rather than offer one, and, aside from reports, much of UFO discourse shuffles off narrative form to argue and speculate in academic rather than storytelling style.» — plantea la objeción contra su propia tesis: el ovni es tecnológico y futurista, pide explicación en vez de darla y ni siquiera narra.

«Yet on closer inspection some affinities reveal the comparison as not at all far-fetched. UFOs are inherently strange and fantastic. They behave in “magical” ways, remain embroiled in controversy, and provoke a sense of awe, mystery, and power. For such reasons UFOs fulfill some basic criteria of myth, though of course these properties by themselves are far from sufficient.» — y le responde con las afinidades, poniendo el límite en la misma frase: estas propiedades por sí solas no bastan.

«While UFO stories are cause for wonder, something about them seems wondrous in a suspiciously old-fashioned way.» — la sospecha que abre el cotejo folclórico: el asombro que producen los relatos ovni tiene un aire anticuado.

«Motifs of marvels include otherworld journeys, diminutive supernatural beings, and the sunless sky of fairyland. The whole premise of extraterrestrial visitation is an otherworld journey, while UFO aliens are usually pictured as short humanoids and abductees sometimes describe a subterranean otherworld with a luminous but sunless sky.» — segundo cotejo: viajes al otro mundo, seres sobrenaturales diminutos y el cielo sin sol del país de las hadas.

«Fairy kidnaps and the supernatural lapse of time in fairyland parallel abductions and missing-time experiences.» — tercer cotejo, el que más volverá: el rapto de hadas y el lapso sobrenatural del tiempo frente a la abducción y el tiempo perdido.

«Even these cursory examples suggest at least casual affinity between some UFO representations and typical mythological contents.» — y mide su propia conclusión: por ahora solo afinidad casual, no prueba.

«One recurrent effort to relate UFOs to myth has treated them as part of an incipient religion,» — presenta la vía que otros han seguido: tratar el ovni como religión incipiente.

«One appealing quality of myth is its comfortable, human-friendly way of thinking. Scientific thought is arduous and unforgiving—it requires exact observa» — contrapone la comodidad del mito al trabajo arduo e implacable del pensamiento científico; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente.

«This reenchantment of the modern world in a seemingly secular story lends it an extra dimension, an emotional appeal that plumbs true mythic depths.» — Bullard llama reencantamiento a lo que ocurre en un relato aparentemente secular como el de Roswell.

«Any lingering strangeness in relating UFOs to myths diminishes with appreciation of how pervasive mythic patterns really are in the structuring of thought and narrative. A growing body of scholarship identifies mythic templates that underlie popular expectations, historical writings, social movements, even news stories in the press and on television.» — responde a la extrañeza de su propio cotejo con la extensión medida de las plantillas míticas: expectativas populares, escritura histórica, movimientos sociales y hasta noticias.

«Newspaper accounts of Custer’s last stand repeated the “epic of defeat” structure also found in the story of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, popular treatments of the life and death of John F. Kennedy mimic Arthurian legend, and the controversy over abortion often invokes apocalyptic rhetoric.» — tres ejemplos fuera del tema: Custer contado como epopeya de la derrota, Kennedy calcado de la leyenda artúrica y el aborto discutido en retórica apocalíptica.

«Mythic patterns find an outlet as close to home as the daily news, where despite journalistic striving for objectivity and facts, accounts of Mother Teresa seldom escape some formulaic refrains of the selfless, all-nurturing mother; reports on the misbehavior of celebrities often mirror elements of the disruptive antihero trickster; and descriptions of mundane disasters borrow from the imagery of cosmic cataclysm.» — y tres más de la prensa diaria: la madre abnegada en Teresa de Calcuta, el trickster en el famoso descarriado, el cataclismo cósmico en el desastre común.

«One example appears in the legendary afterlife that has grown up around the inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). One of the legitimate geniuses of the electrical age, he also qualifies as one of its most colorful characters, an enigmatic eccentric who astounded audiences at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 with lightning bolts sparking from his fingertips.» — elige a Nikola Tesla como caso moderno, y arranca por lo verificable: el excéntrico que sacaba rayos de los dedos en la Exposición Colombina de 1893.

«Even these historically valid parts of Tesla’s biography match several key stations in the life of the magus—a career-changing journey (to America and later to Colorado), a magical contest (with the Wizard of Menlo Park), triumphs (for his system of motors and generators that continue to power the world), and a reversal of fortune (loss of financial support for his greatest undertaking) leading to an obscure death but followed by a resurrection of fame.» — hace coincidir las estaciones del mago con lo históricamente válido: viaje, certamen mágico contra el Mago de Menlo Park, triunfos, reversión de fortuna y resurrección de la fama.

«Much of that subsequent fame has depended on the imaginative possibilities of his life rather than its realities.» — y sitúa el resto: la fama posterior se apoya en las posibilidades imaginativas de esa vida, no en sus realidades.

«He has become entangled with the Philadelphia Experiment, an alleged World War II attempt to make a warship invisible. This effort supposedly tore a hole in the space-time continuum and opened an entry for evil beings now mistaken for aliens.” A related notion that Tesla invented a teleportation device threads its way into popular awareness through the recent mainstream movie The Prestige (2006), where rivalry between two magicians leads one to consult the inventor for ways to improve his act.» — los enredos posteriores: el Experimento Filadelfia, el agujero en el continuo espacio-tiempo y la máquina de teletransporte de la película The Prestige.

«Tesla also finds perennial favor with conspiracy theorists. They see him envisioning a better world of boundless energy free for the taking; but greedy plutocrats cared only to collect the electric bill and stopped his work in one more example of vested interests suppressing a revolutionary invention. In conspiracist views Tesla technology has only begun to come into its own. According to various speculations, his death ray forms part of the Star Wars defense system, the secrecy at Area 51 protects tests of his futuristic inventions, and his power broadcast system provided the means to send craft on clandestine missions to Mars as early as the 1930s or 1940s.» — el Tesla de los conspiracionistas: rayo de la muerte en el sistema Star Wars, pruebas en el Área 51 y misiones clandestinas a Marte.

«An early American literary genre, the “captured by Indians’ story, enjoyed popularity from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.» — pasa al relato de cautiverio entre indios como género literario estadounidense temprano.

«The story begins with forcible separation from familiar surroundings, followed by a ritual ordeal marked by privation, torture, and exposure to savage customs like cannibalism. A captives transformation proceeds with accommodation to the Indians’ way of life, such as eventual relish for seemingly inedible foods, and at last a ritualized adoption as the captive becomes a member of Indian society. The story closes with the captive returned to his or her former culture by escape, rescue, or involuntary repatriation, restored but forever changed by the experience.» — desglosa las estaciones del relato de cautiverio: separación, ordalía ritual, acomodo, adopción y regreso transformado.

«Though the Indian threat has vanished, key parts of the captivity narrative pattern revive in media treatments of POWs and the U.S. hostages held by militant Iranians from 1979 to 1981.» — señala la reaparición del patrón en el tratamiento mediático de los prisioneros de guerra y de los rehenes en Irán.

«These Others invade the civilized human realm, attacking suddenly in the night to carry off helpless victims into an unknown and overwhelming environment. The story continues along well-worn paths, with mortification as abductees lose their clothes and autonomy and then terror and torture as they undergo an examination.» — sigue el paralelo: la invasión nocturna, la pérdida de ropa y autonomía, el terror y la tortura del examen.

«While abductees do not assimilate into alien society, they respond with familiar ambivalence to the cruelty or indifference of their captors to develop a bond, even a sense of love. The sexual overtones of the captivity narrative echo in the reproductive procedures of abduction accounts, while the old concern over mixing of races returns in the theme of aliens creating hybrids.» — y marca dónde el paralelo se ajusta y dónde no: no hay asimilación, pero sí vínculo con el captor, tono sexual y el viejo miedo a la mezcla de razas vuelto híbridos.

«Like their predecessors, abductees may describe their experience as transformative and return with new knowledge, perspective, and identity, but also with a sense of alienation as if torn between two worlds,» — cierra el paralelo con el regreso: conocimiento e identidad nuevos, y una sensación de estar partido entre dos mundos.

«Mythic interventions in historical narratives range from minor to major and seldom displace facts with complete fictions, but the upshot is that patterns and processes external to the events take a hand in shaping narratives of personal experience, collective history, and interpretive understanding.» — el límite que le pone a todo el capítulo: la intervención mítica rara vez sustituye los hechos por ficción completa.

«The vulnerability of so many narratives to mythic patterns forewarns that UFO stories are ripe for similar modification. UFOs are uncertain, mysterious, and exotic. They invite wonder and speculation, provoke hope and fear. In short, they constitute a subject fertile for the growth of rumor and legend, prone to join the ranks of accounts where stereotypical fictions compensate for a dearth of facts or conspiracy theories fill in the blanks when reasons are unknown or unsatisfying. The case will follow that much thought about UFOs does indeed depend on mythic patterns.» — y la conclusión que de ahí saca para su objeto: el relato ovni está maduro para la misma modificación.

«He engineered the harnessing of Niagara Falls for electrical generation and went out west to perfect a means of transmitting electrical energy through the air. Funded for a time by J. P. Morgan, Tesla’s dream of electrifying the world with free energy came to an end when the financier withdrew his support. The inventor accomplished little thereafter but entertained reporters with plans for death rays and grandiose visions of the future until he died in relative poverty.» — la biografía histórica de Tesla en un párrafo: el Niágara, el retiro del apoyo de J. P. Morgan y la muerte en la pobreza.

«Kenneth Arnold’s report of nine objects skipping over the slopes of Mount Rainier on June 24, 1947, marks the nominal beginning of the UFO era. In a sense his sighting comes as just one among ongoing streams of predecessors and successors, and being chosen as the “first” is as arbitrary as pulling one person out of a line to celebrate the millionth customer of a supermarket.» — abre el capítulo segundo fechando el comienzo nominal de la era ovni, y llamando arbitraria la elección con el símil del cliente un millón.

«His report crystallized a coherent mystery out of random observations, gave it a catchy name and captivated public interest. With beginner's luck he started a craze that has matured into a cultural institution.» — Bullard fija lo que hizo el reporte de Arnold: cristalizó un misterio coherente a partir de observaciones sueltas y le puso nombre pegajoso.

«Since then the UFO myth has grown out of observations and experiences, theories and speculations, media images and quarrels with official authority. Much said about UFOs dwells on conspiracies, New Age hopes, and paranormal phenomena, so that the initial mystery of flying disks branches out into unlikely and unforeseen connections with matters scientific, political, religious, social, cultural, and imaginary.» — de qué se ha alimentado el mito desde entonces, con la conspiración, la esperanza New Age y lo paranormal entre los ingredientes.

«This chapter follows UFO mythology through four phases distinguished by characteristics of the reported phenomenon and interests of the people pursuing it. ‘The early period, from 1947 to 1963, introduced most UFO story types, motifs, and themes; 1964 to 1975 saw widening tolerance for strangeness and hosted a climax in the conflict between official and unofficial views; emphasis turned to high-profile claims of crashes and abductions during the late 1970s and 1980s; while from the 1990s onward the cultural image and political implications of UFOs became more important than the UFOs themselves.» — las cuatro fases con que ordena la historia, hasta la última, donde la imagen cultural pesa más que los ovnis.

«Several thousand flying saucer reports flooded newspapers in the few weeks following Arnold's sighting. The furor came and went like a summer heat wave with no resolution for the nature or purpose of these objects. They began and ended as oddities. Orson Welles, famous for his 1938 Invasion from Mars radio broadcast, predicted that the flying saucers would die out as just another silly season fad,» — la primera ola y el pronóstico de Orson Welles, que la daba por moda de temporada.

«perhaps his word would have stood as their epitaph had not an object like an ice-cream cone appeared over Fort Knox, Kentucky, on the afternoon of January 7, 1948. The pilots of several P-51s flying in the area responded to a request from the base to investigate. Capt. Thomas F. Mantell, the leader of the flight, continued to climb toward the object after his companions gave up the chase for lack of fuel. He radioed a description of the object as metallic and tremendous in size soon before he crashed into a farmer's field.» — el caso que desmintió ese pronóstico: la muerte del capitán Thomas F. Mantell persiguiendo un objeto sobre Fort Knox el 7 de enero de 1948.

«The New York Times captioned the story as “Flier Dies Chasing a ‘Flying Saucer,” though the object was probably a high-altitude Skyhook balloon, part of a secret project unknown to local commanders. Mantell likely rose too high and blacked out for lack of oxygen.» — y da la explicación probable: un globo Skyhook de un proyecto secreto que los mandos locales no conocían, con desmayo por falta de oxígeno.

«Two other sightings from 1948 helped shape the emergent image of the mystery and became canonical classics for every new enthusiast to learn. On July 24, pilot Clarence S. Chiles and copilot John B. Whitted were flying an Eastern Airlines DC-3 near Montgomery, Alabama. At 2:45 A.M., out of the clear, moonlit sky, a wingless, rocketlike object streaming a trail of fire sped past the aircraft. Chiles watched the object for about ten seconds. He described it as having a blue glow underneath and two rows of brilliantly lighted round windows along the side.» — el caso Chiles-Whitted del 24 de julio de 1948 sobre Montgomery, Alabama, con el objeto sin alas y sus dos hileras de ventanas.

«Another pilot, Lt. George F. Gorman, had a dogfight with a small UFO over Fargo, North Dakota, about two hours after dark on October 1. The object, a spherical white light less than a foot in diameter, seemed to circle, turn, rush at Gorman’ plane, and then veer off at speeds of several hundred miles per hour, rising and diving over some 10,000 feet of altitude during Gorman’s attempts at interception.» — el combate aéreo del teniente George F. Gorman sobre Fargo, Dakota del Norte, el 1 de octubre de 1948.

«Explanations for these sightings build strong arguments for a bright meteor and a light-bearing balloon, but the three famous sightings of 1948 established that flying saucers could be any shape or size and gave indication of purpose and control.’ These reports also reinforced a continuity of flying saucers as a recurrent fixture of observation.» — reparte de nuevo: concede el meteoro y el globo luminoso como explicaciones fuertes, y retiene lo que los tres casos fijaron en la imagen del fenómeno.

«The standard name of flying saucer belied the various shapes reported and became synonymous with spaceships. The Air Force favored the looser, less prejudicial term “unidentified flying object,’ and it gradually supplanted the older designation in popular usage as well from the mid-1950s onward.» — el cambio de nombre: la Fuerza Aérea prefirió el término menos prejuicioso de objeto volador no identificado, y acabó imponiéndose.

«In the early years saucers did little more than fly, sometimes in formations or swarms but almost never landing or drawing near or revealing structural features, and seldom making noise or leaving contrails or exhaust. By day the saucers often appeared as silvery disks; by night they gave off an eerie glow in the dark.» — cómo se comportaban los platillos en los primeros años: volaban y poco más, sin aterrizar ni mostrar estructura.

«A spectacular nocturnal case reported by airline pilot William B. Nash and copilot William H. Fortenberry began over Chesapeake Bay in the early evening of July 14, 1952. The two pilots saw half a dozen objects glowing like hot embers rush toward the plane in echelon formation. These coinlike disks slowed, then flipped on edge in unison and reversed their arrangement, then flipped back into a level position and shot off at a sharp angle. Two more objects, faster and brighter than the original six, sped out of the dark, as if late for an appointment, to join the formation and fly away with the group during a performance that lasted some fifteen seconds.» — el caso Nash-Fortenberry sobre la bahía de Chesapeake, del 14 de julio de 1952, con los discos que se ponen de canto al unísono.

«Waves brought spectacular sightings as well as hundreds of reports, such as July 19-20 and 26-27, 1952, when radar at Washington National Airport tracked UFOs flying over the city, even violating restricted airspace over the Capitol and the White House. The impossibly fast and maneuverable objects appeared as orange lights to the naked eye and eluded every jet sent to intercept them. The Air Force dismissed the sightings as consequences of temperature inversions—colder air sandwiched between layers of hot air during a summer heat wave, resulting in unusual reflections of radar and lights from the ground—but the Washington incidents made headlines all over the country and still spark controversy today.» — el episodio de julio de 1952 sobre Washington, con radares del aeropuerto nacional y espacio restringido violado, y la explicación oficial por inversión térmica.

«Another wave began in late 1957 and became national news on November 2 with multiple reports from Texas of huge torpedo or egg-shaped objects that hovered close to highways and caused automobile engines to stall. The first incident began with two men near Levelland when the engine of their truck died and its headlights dimmed as a glowing object approached. One man, named Saucedo, to the delight of journalistic wags around the country, dove to the ground as the 200-foot torpedo flew overhead with a roar, a rush of wind, and a sensation of heat. As the object departed to the east, the truck started again and the men phoned the sheriff.» — la ola de Levelland, Texas, de noviembre de 1957, con motores parados y un objeto de sesenta metros.

«Skeptics invoked ball lightning to explain the object and its effects, but similar incidents occurred over a wide area as the UFO wave spread nationwide. Ufologists valued apparent electromagnetic effects as a form of physical proof, evidence that UFOs interfered with earthly electrical systems and motor vehicles.» — consigna la explicación escéptica por rayo globular y el uso que los ufólogos dieron a los efectos electromagnéticos como prueba física.

«Critics have since built a cogent case that the excited witnesses, all but one of them teenagers or children, disturbed a barn owl and panic enlarged the bird to regulation monster size.» — y le da su peso a la crítica: testigos casi todos adolescentes o niños, un búho molestado y el pánico que lo agranda.

«Despite Hollywood sanction, tall monsters are scarce in UFO reports and the typical occupant is diminutive in both stature and menace.» — corrige la imagen de Hollywood: el ocupante típico es diminuto en tamaño y en amenaza.

«Indentations along the tracks suggested an object weighing several tons had rested there.” A few weeks later Life magazine published an illustration of an Italian woman's encounter with two smiling little entities half her size as they tried to pull her toward their craft.’° Reports from South America told of hairy dwarfs from UFOs attacking hunters and passersby, clawing the victims’ shirts to shreds and leaving bloody scratches.» — los rastros en la vía, la ilustración de Life sobre la italiana y los enanos peludos sudamericanos que arañaban a cazadores.

«Neither the diving suit nor belligerence has endured as characteristics of UFO occupants, but a striking souvenir of the 1954 wave is a photograph of a French farmer chalking the image of the entity he saw on the side of a barn. This figure of a dwarfish being with a rounded, hairless head and large eyes resembles the typical entities from countless abduction reports of subsequent years.» — el hallazgo que le importa de la ola de 1954: la foto del granjero francés dibujando con gis su entidad de cabeza redonda, sin pelo y ojos grandes, igual a las de las abducciones posteriores.

«Occupant reports multiplied on the home front in 1955, with the most sensational account coming from Kelly, Kentucky, on August 21. Eight adults and three children of the Sutton family were spending Sunday afternoon at home. One young man came back from the well a little before dark saying he saw a flying saucer, but no one paid attention. About 8 oclock a barking dog announced the approach of a humanoid creature about three and a half feet tall, luminous like a radium watch dial, with a large round head and enormous round glowing eyes.» — el caso de Kelly, Kentucky, del 21 de agosto de 1955, con la familia Sutton y la criatura luminosa como carátula de radio.

«The being walked or floated toward the back door and two men fired guns at the intruder. It flipped over then ran off into the darkness unharmed. A few minutes later another being appeared at a window, and the men shot through the screen. As one man stepped out the door to see if they had hit the entity, a clawed hand reached down from the roof and touched his hair. After shooting this creature off the roof, they blasted another one in a tree.» — el desarrollo del asedio: los disparos que no surten efecto y la mano con garras que baja del techo.

«Once the police departed and the Suttons settled down to sleep, the beings returned, one of them looking in at a window close to Mrs. Lankford, the family matriarch. A shot drove the being away but others appeared until around 4:30 a.m. Mrs. Lankford was well respected, and her testimony foreclosed for many people any explanation of the incident as hoax or panic.» — el regreso de los seres y el peso que Bullard le da al testimonio de la señora Lankford, matriarca respetada.

«Skeptics have resorted to owls again, assuming their feathers were covered with luminous fungus; but this sort of owl attack seems unprecedented in natural history or even tall tales, and the sheer unlikelihood that these shy birds would besiege a house for hours amid a barrage of gunfire mires this explanation in a swamp of improbabilities.» — y rechaza la explicación escéptica por búhos con hongos luminosos, por inverosímil hasta para el cuento.

«With the cold war setting in as the saucers began to fly, governmental authorities took keen interest in the observations as possible evidence of Soviet secret weapons. The task of investigating saucers befell the USS. Air Force, an unwelcome birthday present for a branch of service organized as a separate entity on September 18, 1947.» — sitúa el interés oficial en la guerra fría, y llama regalo de cumpleaños indeseado a la tarea que le tocó a la Fuerza Aérea.

«Plans for a saucer study began that same month, and Project Sign opened in January 1948, two weeks after the death of Captain Mantell. The project hired astronomer J. Allen Hynek as a scientific adviser to weed out natural phenomena mistaken for saucers,» — abre Project Sign en enero de 1948 y ficha a J. Allen Hynek como asesor científico para descartar fenómenos naturales.

«By late 1948 the subject provoked its typical sharp polarization of opinion as some project members concluded that the saucers were not only real but probably extraterrestrial, while the commanding general of the Air Force, Hoyt S. Vandenberg, rejected this» — la primera polarización dentro del propio proyecto, con el general Hoyt S. Vandenberg rechazando por no probada la estimación extraterrestre.

«A shakeup of Project Sign soon followed as the proponents were reassigned and only opponents who thought saucers were nothing but a nuisance manned the new project, assigned the ominous name of Project Grudge. The tone matched the title as members explained away reports by any means necessary without an investigation or study. Lasting only about a year, Grudge lapsed into inactivity by the end of 1949.» — el relevo que dio lugar a Project Grudge, con su nombre ominoso y su método de explicar sin investigar.

«Meanwhile, the saucers reappeared to annoy their doubters. Continued reports led to a revival of Air Force investigations under the more benign name of Project Blue Book, and an entity under this title would last until 1969. The new director was Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, and he made a gallant effort to find out what the saucers really were, even during the chaos of the mammoth 1952 wave. Yet lack of support and outright hindrance from his superiors stymied his effort and left him to wonder if they even wanted an investigation.» — el regreso de Blue Book bajo el capitán Edward J. Ruppelt, y el estorbo de sus superiores.

«A decision to “strip [UFOs] of ... the aura of mystery they have unfortunately acquired” followed the Robertson report, and orders went into effect to restrict reports by military personnel to military channels.» — la orden que siguió al informe Robertson: despojar al tema de su aura y encauzar los reportes militares por canales militares.

«As a lid of official secrecy closed over UFOs, the ofhcial line remained that the military had nothing to hide, and this transparent lie led to a prolonged climate of distrust.» — el juicio con que cierra el episodio, y la palabra que usa: mentira transparente, de la que salió un clima duradero de desconfianza.

«No sooner did the saucers appear than the media began to associate them with Martians and spaceships. In its July 21, 1947, issue, Life magazine ran a cartoon of alien creatures bombarding the planets of the solar system with various forms of crockery, earth being the recipient of saucers.» — la asociación mediática temprana con marcianos y naves, con la caricatura de Life del 21 de julio de 1947.

«If the spaceship idea enjoyed wide circulation, the prospect gained little credence with the public in those early years. The spaceship option did not register at all in a Gallup poll from late July 1947. Saucers were hoaxes, illusions, or imaginary, said 39 percent of people queried, while 15 percent opted for U.S. secret weapons and most others said they did not know. By May 1950, 29 percent favored American secret weapons or a new kind of aircraft and 3 percent thought the saucers were Soviet. Another 16 percent chose illusion or hoax and 5 percent said “comets, shooting stars, something from another planet.» — y contra esa asociación pone las encuestas: en 1947 la opción de la nave espacial ni siquiera registra, y en 1950 apenas un cinco por ciento.

«Flying saucers became synonymous with alien spaceships in the popular culture of the 1950s, featured in jokes, political cartoons, advertisements, rock and roll songs, and in an entire subgenre of science fiction movies.” The movies introduced a dichotomy of opinions that persists today, on one side the hostile aliens portrayed in The Thing from Another World (1951), Invaders from Mars (1953), and Earth Versus the Flying Saucers (1956), on the other side the noble alien of This Island Earth (1955) and the benign ambassador of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).» — cuándo sí se volvieron sinónimos, y la dicotomía que el cine fijó y que él dice que persiste: el alienígena hostil y el noble.

«A small welcoming committee already anticipated visitors from space. Occult groups like the Theosophists and the“I AM” movement included communication with extraterrestrials as part of their mythology,” while science-fiction magazines sometimes speculated about alien intervention in historical events.» — el comité de bienvenida que ya existía: grupos ocultistas como los teósofos y el movimiento I AM, con la comunicación con extraterrestres dentro de su mitología.

«A back-cover illustration for the April 1948 issue of Amazing Stories shows the population of the now-deserted Cambodian city of Angkor Wat streaming aboard spaceships waiting to depart from earth, a what-if speculation that posed an alien cause for mysteries of the ancient past.» — la contraportada de Amazing Stories de abril de 1948, con la población de Angkor Wat embarcando en naves, como primera especulación de causa alienígena para el pasado antiguo.

«Desmond Leslie, H. T. Wilkins, and M. K. Jessup wrote various books in the early days of the saucer era to link myths, medieval wonders, disappearing ships, and astronomical observations of alleged changes on the moon with flying saucers, advocating any curiosity, however far-fetched, as evidence for an alien role in human history.» — los tres autores tempranos que ligaron mitos, maravillas medievales, barcos desaparecidos y cambios en la Luna con los platillos.

«Within a few years the story would circulate that a hostile saucer shot down the plane with an alien death ray» — consigna el crecimiento legendario del caso Mantell: un rayo de la muerte alienígena que derriba el avión.

«flying saucers had simply returned to the news bringing a newfound seriousness, a hint that the lighthearted puzzle of the previous summer was more than a laughing matter after all.» — y el efecto real del caso: el asunto volvió a la prensa con una seriedad nueva y dejó de dar risa.

«Every two or three years a dramatic flood of sightings attracted widespread attention. These waves—or “flaps” in military jargon—broke out in 1947, 1950, 1952, and 1957 in the United States, 1954 in Europe, and 1954 and 1957 in South America. The waves of 1947 and 1957 played out in two or three weeks; those of 1952 and 1954 surged for several months. The 1954 outbreaks ended an illusion that UFOs were largely made in the USA, and the mystery has lived happily ever after with an international scope.» — el patrón de las oleadas —o flaps en jerga militar—, con sus fechas y duraciones, y el momento en que dejaron de ser asunto estadounidense.

«If saucers were intelligently controlled craft, they might well have occupants. The first occupant report widely publicized as news originated in Flatwoods, West Virginia, on the evening of September 12, 1952. After watching a fireball land or crash on a nearby hill, eight residents and a dog climbed to the top to investigate. They smelled a foul odor and looked at a glowing object until the dog growled at something off to the side.» — el primer reporte de ocupantes con difusión nacional: Flatwoods, Virginia Occidental, 12 de septiembre de 1952.

«The dog headed downhill in a hurry with the humans close behind. The sheriff found no monster or saucer but saw traces like skid marks on the ground.» — el desenlace de Flatwoods, con el sheriff que no halló nada salvo marcas de derrape.

«one of the best encounters began for a man named Marius Dewilde after he went outside on the evening of September 10 to see why his dog was barking. An oval, capsulelike object sat astride the railroad track and two entities, three feet tall and dressed in diving suits, waddled toward the craft, As Dewilde tried to intercept the entities, a light from the UFO struck him and he was unable to move until the craft took off.» — el caso de Marius Dewilde, del 10 de septiembre de 1954, dentro de la ola francesa de ocupantes: dos entidades de un metro con trajes de buzo.

«Finding gunfire ineffectual against the invaders, the men retreated into the house, and over the next three hours the women and children became progressively more terrified as the beings, while never hostile, continued to appear at the windows or doors.» — la retirada de la familia Sutton a la casa mientras los seres, nunca hostiles, seguían asomándose.

«two cars to the Hopkinsville sheriff and returned half an hour later with a troop of police, reporters, and curiosity seekers. An extensive search over the next two hours turned up no entities, only holes in the screen and shotgun shells littering the ground.» — la huida a Hopkinsville y el regreso con policías y curiosos, que solo hallaron agujeros en el mosquitero y cartuchos.

«In January 1953 a CIA-sponsored group of scientists known as the Robertson Panel concluded that flying saucers probably did not represent any form of foreign technology and posed no threat to national security.» — el dictamen del Robertson Panel de enero de 1953: ni tecnología extranjera ni amenaza a la seguridad nacional.

«belief in alien influences on ancient civilizations hardened into a popular tenet of the UFO creed.» — Bullard fecha el endurecimiento de la influencia alienígena en las civilizaciones antiguas como dogma popular del credo ovni.

«The extraterrestrial hypothesis found its most enthusiastic champion in a retired Marine Corps aviator and aviation writer, Major Donald E. Keyhoe. In an article for True magazine in 1949, he laid out the case he would promote throughout the 1950s, arguing that the government knew flying saucers were advanced vehicles from another planet but hid this fact from the public to prevent mass panic.» — presenta a Donald E. Keyhoe, aviador retirado de la Infantería de Marina, y su tesis de 1949 en la revista True: el gobierno sabe y oculta.

«Keyhoe was convinced and convincing. His network of military and government contacts leaked impressive sightings and behind-the-scenes rumors to him, making him the best-connected spokesman for flying saucers during this decade.» — explica de dónde venía su fuerza: una red de contactos militares y de gobierno que le filtraba avistamientos y rumores.

«He wrote with a flair that dramatized stale facts and events into an ongoing detective story in four best-selling books— The Flying Saucers Are Real (1950), The Flying Saucers from Outer Space (1953), The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (1955), and Flying Saucers: Top Secret (1960).» — los cuatro libros de Keyhoe, y el modo de escribirlos: hechos añejos vueltos historia de detectives por entregas.

«The titles stated his foremost concerns, the texts crackled with tense expectation that the secrecy campaign verged on collapse and the hidden truth would soon spill out that visitors from space swarmed our skies.» — lee los títulos como declaración de intenciones, con la expectativa de que la campaña de secreto estaba por venirse abajo.

«Even as Keyhoe built a case that saucers were too strange to be earthly aircraft, some earthlings insisted that not only was he right, but they knew all about it straight from the aliens themselves. From 1952 onward a growing list of“contactees” claimed that they met “Space Brothers” from Venus, Mars, Saturn, or the unknown planet Clarion and even hitched a ride aboard the saucers for tours of outer space.» — el giro de 1952: los contactados dicen saberlo de boca de los propios Hermanos del Espacio, de Venus, Marte, Saturno o el planeta Clarion.

«George Van Tassel, George Adamski, Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, George Hunt Williamson, Orfeo Angelucci, Laura Mundo, Howard Menger, Gloria Lee, Buck Nelson, Reinhold Schmidt, and a host of others communicated with extraterrestrials by radio, telepathy, or good colloquial English, and enthusiastic followers paid to hear lectures or flocked to the California desert to attend Van Tassel’s annual Giant Rock convention.» — la nómina de contactados y sus vías de comunicación —radio, telepatía o inglés coloquial—, con la convención anual de Giant Rock.

«Ernest and Ruth Norman founded Unarius, and George King founded the Aetherius Society, contactee organizations that continue today even after the founders’ deaths.» — las dos organizaciones de contactados que sobrevivieron a sus fundadores: Unarius, de Ernest y Ruth Norman, y la Aetherius Society de George King.

«Long on interplanetary goodwill and short on evidence, the contactees spread insipid spiritual teachings to the faithful, yet the mix of feel-good philosophy and salvation from the skies struck an appealing note for 1950s seekers troubled by the nuclear threat and dissatisfied with conventional religion.» — el juicio y a la vez la explicación: enseñanzas espirituales insípidas que le hablaban al buscador de los cincuenta, inquieto por lo nuclear e insatisfecho con la religión establecida.

«A great divide opened between the two camps, with contactees appealing to spiritual seekers with an alternative religious movement while ufologists began a struggle for scientific respectability and official recognition that continues today.» — la escisión que de ahí resultó, y que él dice que sigue: los contactados hacia el movimiento religioso alternativo, los ufólogos hacia la respetabilidad científica.

«When scientific indifference and government secrecy frustrated the curiosity that saucers inspired, amateur enthusiasts filled the void by forming a scattered folk community to search for answers. A local sighting might lead interested persons to form a club that disbanded once interest waned. Few saucer clubs lasted more than two years, but their mimeographed newsletters kept interest alive during intervals when the national press ignored the subject.» — cómo se llenó el vacío: clubes locales efímeros cuyos boletines mimeografiados mantuvieron vivo el interés.

«While most 1950s saucer organizations were ephemeral and ineffectual, a few earned a reputation for integrity and discipline, among them Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York and Civilian Saucer Investigation in Los Angeles; Leonard Stringfield’s Civilian Research, Interplanetary Flying Objects (CRIFO) in Cincinnati; and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), founded by Coral and Jim Lorenzen in 1952 and lasting until 1988.» — las organizaciones que sí duraron, con nombres y fechas: CRIFO de Leonard Stringfield y APRO de Coral y Jim Lorenzen.

«A fledgling and foundering organization based in Washington, D.C., the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) appointed Donald Keyhoe as director in 1957, and he set about transforming the committee into the preeminent UFO organization of its time.» — el nombramiento de Keyhoe como director de NICAP en 1957 y lo que hizo con esa organización.

«NICAP toed a conservative line by favoring reports from pilots, police, the military, and other presumably reliable sources while rejecting sensational and most close-encounter claims.» — la línea conservadora de NICAP: fuentes presuntamente confiables, y rechazo de lo sensacional y de casi todo encuentro cercano.

«Keyhoe set his sights on congressional hearings as the surest way to blow the lid off the Air Force cover-up. He trusted that the accumulation of sober evidence would convince enough leaders of Congress to act and end the secrecy once and for all.» — la apuesta de Keyhoe: audiencias en el Congreso, y la confianza en que la evidencia sobria bastaría.

«A lurid throng of rumors, claims, controversies, and speculations always scurried beneath the feet of respectable ufology. Occultist Meade Layne called the saucers “ether ships” from other planes of existence, while Kenneth Arnold and others suggested that the saucers were animals native to the upper atmosphere.» — las hipótesis que corrían por debajo: el ocultista Meade Layne y sus naves de éter de otros planos, y la de animales de la alta atmósfera que sugirió el propio Arnold.

«An early mystery-within-a-mystery began in late 1953 when Albert K. Bender suddenly shut down the International Flying Saucer Bureau, a thriving club he had started the previous year. Not only did his abrupt termination of the club puzzle his friends, but Bender fled any further contact with UFOs and left no explanation except to hint, with manifest fear and trembling, that three men dressed in black suits had visited him.» — el origen del misterio dentro del misterio: Albert K. Bender cerrando su club y aludiendo con miedo a tres hombres de traje negro.

«This clue inspired Gray Barker to write a speculative investigation of the Bender case and strange behavior among other ufologists, They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers (1956). The Three Men in Black entered UFO lore as its resident bogeymen, perhaps sinister government agents frightening into silence anyone who learned inconvenient secrets, perhaps the aliens themselves policing the overly inquisitive.» — el libro de Gray Barker de 1956 y las dos lecturas que el folclore ovni dio a los Tres Hombres de Negro: agentes del gobierno o los propios alienígenas.

«When Bender told his story in a 1962 book, he revealed that the men were indeed threatening aliens with glowing eyes and a demonic sulfurous smell, but they recently had returned to their home planet and left him free to speak.» — la versión que el propio Bender dio en 1962: alienígenas amenazantes de ojos brillantes y olor sulfuroso, ya devueltos a su planeta.

«Something of a trickster figure in ufology, Barker published an irregular and irreverent magazine between 1953 and 1962, first entitled the Saucerian and later Saucerian Bulletin. The “Wild Rumors” column was a prominent feature where Barker reveled in tales of landings, aliens, crashes, and contacts largely ignored by serious ufologists but evidence for an underground current of beliefs within the UFO community.» — llama a Barker figura de trickster, y usa su columna de rumores salvajes como evidencia de una corriente subterránea de creencias.

«Another ufologist with a sense of humor was James W. Moseley, editor of Saucer News. Like many magazines of the era, Saucer News printed sightings and legitimate news of the field when there was anything available to print, but in times of information drought the pages filled with gossip, opinion, and attacks on other UFO publications or organizations.» — el Saucer News de James W. Moseley, y lo que se imprimía en él cuando no había noticias: chisme, opinión y ataques.

«Barker and Moseley carried on a famous feud for years, though it was all in fun and the two men were actually good friends. With other players in the saucer field these feuds could degenerate into mean-spirited name-calling.» — distingue el pleito de broma entre amigos del insulto real que se daba entre otros del campo.

«Another casualty was a sense that the mystery headed toward some climactic resolution, perhaps because of a break in government secrecy, perhaps through dramatic actions of the aliens; but in any case a conviction had prevailed throughout the 1950s that a definitive event was impending, and it would change the world. When the big event failed to materialize, the earlier excitement and momentum ran down as the faithful wearied of a lack of direction in the phenomenon. The saucer clubs squabbled and theorists speculated, but the drive toward a conclusion had come to a standstill.» — la baja menos visible: se perdió la convicción de que un suceso definitivo estaba por llegar.

«Edward J. Ruppelt first published his experiences with Project Blue Book in 1956 as The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. In the original edition he acknowledged that the Air Force found no explanation for a number of puzzling cases, but an expanded edition issued in 1959 reversed his earlier position and denied that any significant number of cases eluded conventional resolution.» — el vuelco de Edward J. Ruppelt entre la edición de 1956 y la ampliada de 1959 de The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.

«Ruppelt may have undergone a genuine change of mind, but Keyhoe and other ufologists believed the military had pressured him to recant, and his death in 1960 foreclosed any elaboration or explication he might have offered.» — y se abstiene de resolverlo: pudo ser cambio genuino de opinión o presión militar, y su muerte en 1960 cerró la posibilidad de saberlo.

«Harvard astronomer Donald H. Menzel emerged as the foremost scientific critic in his 1953 book, Flying Saucers, where he explained many saucer sightings as mirages and atmospheric phenomena. He struck again with The World of Flying Saucers in 1963, where he repeated that atmospheric and astronomical phenomena accounted for most UFO reports and heaped ridicule on the subject as a myth of the space age.» — los dos libros de Donald H. Menzel, de 1953 y 1963, con los espejismos y los fenómenos atmosféricos como explicación y el mito de la era espacial como burla.

«Menzel’s blast underscored—for anyone not already well aware—that ufology was a movement in retreat. This crisis might have proven fatal had not a resurgence of UFO activity intervened.» — el diagnóstico del momento: la ufología iba en retirada y solo la salvó un repunte de actividad.

«An examination of the landing site found burnt bushes and four indentations such as landing gear might leave. Critics charged that the story was a hoax and the landing traces required nothing more sophisticated than a spade and a can of lighter fluid, but the police, the Air Force, and the media flocked to the scene, and UFOs entered the news for front-page attention once again.» — los rastros del aterrizaje, la acusación de fraude con pala y líquido de encendedor, y el efecto: el tema volvió a primera plana.

«Publicity surrounding this Socorro landing heralded a new wave and a new era. Over the next ten years UFOs enacted the most dramatic episode in their saga, a time of soaring expectations, dashed hopes, and a remarkable recovery. More than ever before or since, UFOs left little breathing room from sighting to sighting, wave to wave, as a worldwide pandemic raged from 1964 to 1968.» — declara abierta la nueva era, y la describe sin respiro de un avistamiento al siguiente.

«Not only did UFOs return for an unprecedented concentration of activity, but they came back bolder than ever. Their pilots seemed willing to land, to show themselves, to take a purposeful and sometimes frightening interest in humans. Close-up sightings revealed structural details of the craft and reinforced the identity of UFOs as physical vehicles, but a paradox asserted itself when the more witnesses saw, the less material UFOs appeared to be.» — la paradoja que da nombre a la era: cuanto más veían los testigos, menos material parecía el objeto.

«Surreal accounts entered the record of UFOs that appeared and disappeared like ghosts, changed shape, played tricks with time, and bent or twisted light like a solid substance. A new term—“high strangeness’—entered the ufological vocabulary and became the new frontier and new focus of investigation.» — el catálogo de rarezas que entró al registro, y el término que de ahí salió: alta extrañeza.

«UFOs of the 1960s looked and acted like UFOs of the 1950s but went about their business on a larger scale in shorter time. Some areas like the Uintah Basin of Utah seemed to open a “window” for frequent UFO visitation, while the English town of Warminster became a UFO watchers’ Mecca for nearly a decade.» — la novedad de escala, y las ventanas locales de visita: la Uintah Basin de Utah y el pueblo inglés de Warminster.

«National, regional, and local waves visited Canada, Mexico, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Romania, and the Soviet Union between 1965 and 1968; even meteorologists at remote Antarctic stations witnessed UFO displays in 1965.» — el alcance internacional de las oleadas entre 1965 y 1968, hasta las estaciones antárticas.

«Just at the onset of the 1964 UFO revival, NICAP published a book by assistant director Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, and gave copies to members of Congress as the organization continued to push for hearings. What distinguished The UFO Evidence as an important research document was a comparative study of patterns in the best reports, and with this quiet, systematic march of evidence Hall marshaled a more convincing case for UFOs as unearthly physical vehicles than the whole parade of 1950s anecdotal literature.» — el papel de The UFO Evidence, de Richard Hall: un estudio comparado de patrones que valía más, dice, que toda la literatura anecdótica de los cincuenta.

«In 1965 Jacques Vallee, a graduate student in astrophysics and computer science at Northwestern University, published Anatomy of a Phenomenon, a lucid preamble to the scientific study of UFOs that highlighted the evidence and how to approach it.» — sitúa Anatomy of a Phenomenon, de 1965, cuando Jacques Vallee era estudiante de posgrado en Northwestern.

«James McDonald, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Arizona, maintained an interest in UFOs since he sighted one in the 1950s. When he went public as an investigator in 1966, UFOs gained their most vigorous and outspoken scientific advocate of the late 1960s.» — y la entrada pública de James McDonald en 1966 como el defensor científico más vigoroso de la década.

«A change in tone among the press and public accompanied the increasing quality of sightings. Where reporters once treated the subject as good only for a laugh, they covered UFO stories as legitimate, even important news by 1965, and one editorialist after another spoke up for the need to investigate a mystery that grew more and more mysterious.» — el cambio de tono de la prensa hacia 1965, de la burla a la nota legítima.

«Saturday Review columnist John Fuller went to New Hampshire for a journalistic investigation into the recurrent sightings around Exeter in the fall of 1965. ‘The more witnesses he interviewed, the deeper his conviction became that they saw something real and inexplicable. Fuller wrote of his experiences in Incident at Exeter, where he concluded that UFOs were probably extraterrestrial spaceships and called for the government to “reveal what it knows, or to order a scientific investigation on a major scale.» — la investigación de John Fuller en Exeter, su conclusión extraterrestre y su exigencia al gobierno, citada textualmente.

«The furor reached such a pitch that the head of Blue Book sent J. Allen Hynek to investigate. He was not much impressed by the famous sightings or the UFO hysteria he found. At a press conference a few days later, Hynek pointed out that many Michigan sightings resolved into planets or stars with a little investigation, and he suggested that the lights seen in marshy locations around Dexter and Hillsdale might have originated with swamp gas.» — la intervención de J. Allen Hynek y la frase que le costaría la fama: el gas de pantano.

«Hynek’s remarks raised a howl of derision heard around the world. An exasperated Hillsdale civil defense director complained that the UFO appeared in a park, not a swamp,” and citizens outraged at the insult to their intelligence wrote their congressmen. Press and public reacted with unprecedented indignation as they lampooned the swamp gas explanation as an idea that “smells” and berated the Air Force for refusing to level with the public.» — la reacción, con el director de defensa civil de Hillsdale aclarando que el ovni salió en un parque y no en un pantano.

«Several influential voices— Time, the New York Times, and Walter Cronkite in a CBS News special that aired in early May among them—still seconded the Air Force line, but the skeptics fought a losing defense against public opinion» — consigna que Time, el New York Times y Walter Cronkite secundaron la línea de la Fuerza Aérea, y perdieron ante la opinión pública.

«A Gallup poll taken in mid-April found that 96 percent of the population had heard about flying saucers, 46 percent thought they were real, and 5 percent had seen one.» — la Gallup de abril de 1966, con el noventa y seis por ciento de reconocimiento y el cinco por ciento que decía haber visto uno.

«A more threatening vote of no confidence in Air Force handling of the subject took shape in Washington as two Michigan representatives, one of them Gerald Ford, the influential House Republican minority leader, responded to the public outcry and called for formal congressional hearings.» — la respuesta política, con Gerald Ford, líder de la minoría republicana en la Cámara, entre quienes pidieron audiencias.

«Three Air Force representatives testified before the House Armed Services Committee on April 5; one was Hynek, and he favored an independent scientific investigation. The Air Force agreed and began to search for a major university to host the study. After several candidates shied away, the University of Colorado signed a contract with the Air Force in October, with notéd physicist Edward U. Condon to head the investigation.» — el desenlace: Hynek a favor de una investigación independiente, y la Universidad de Colorado firmando con Edward U. Condon al frente.

«The project, eventually funded at more than half a million dollars, included a staff of astronomers, physicists, psychologists, and other specialists. Their investigations began in earnest early in 1967 and ended in the spring of 1968, with the remainder of the year spent in writing up a massive study report of case investigations and supplementary material on such topics as radar and the psychology of human perception.» — el tamaño y el calendario del proyecto Condon, con su plantilla de astrónomos, físicos y psicólogos.

«Keyhoe and other serious ufologists deplored the contactee movement as nothing more than flimsy tales of make believe pieced together out of religious sentiments, New Age metaphysics, and trappings of science fiction.» — el rechazo de los ufólogos serios a los contactados: cuentos armados con sentimiento religioso, metafísica New Age y utilería de ciencia ficción.

«Ray Palmer, editor of Amazing Stories in 1947, took an early interest in Arnold's sighting and promoted saucers in Fate, a magazine he cofounded in 1948.» — la trayectoria de Ray Palmer, de Amazing Stories a Fate, revista que cofundó en 1948.

«The next night, June 27, the UFO returned. Gill and about a dozen others waved at the figures, and they waved back.» — el remate del caso Gill: los feligreses saludaron a las figuras y las figuras devolvieron el saludo.

«As good sightings remained sporadic, press attention as well as public interest in UFOs began to wither.» — el desgaste de finales de los cincuenta: con los buenos avistamientos espaciados, se marchitó la atención de la prensa y del público.

«membership, NICAP felt the pinch and appeals for donations filled the mails more frequently than issues of its publication, the UFO Investigator. The hope for congressional investigations slipped away as the saucers slipped out of the public spotlight.» — y el efecto sobre NICAP: pedía donativos más seguido de lo que publicaba su boletín, y se le fue la esperanza de audiencias.

«It began near Socorro, New Mexico, in the late afternoon of April 24, 1964. Police officer Lonnie Zamora was pursuing a speeding car along a desert road when he heard an explosion and broke off to investigate,» — el caso Socorro del 24 de abril de 1964, con el policía Lonnie Zamora persiguiendo un coche a exceso de velocidad.

«By the time he reached the top of the hill, all was quiet and he saw no flame, but an object like an overturned white car sat in a ravine while two figures the size of boys, dressed in white overalls, stood nearby. He radioed a report of a possible accident to headquarters, but when he looked toward the scene again, the figures were gone and the “car” started to spout smokeless flames as it rose in the air. The oval object roared close overhead while he took cover behind his car, fearing the object would explode.» — lo que Zamora dijo haber visto: un objeto como coche blanco volteado, dos figuras del tamaño de niños con overol blanco, y el despegue.

«Spaur and his partner Barney Neff pursued the UFO in their cruiser in a high-speed chase that carried them eighty-five miles from Ohio into Pennsylvania. Other law enforcement officers learned of the chase by radio and spotted the object. The skeptics blamed Venus, but the news media gave the incident extensive coverage,» — la persecución de Spaur y Barney Neff hasta Pensilvania, la explicación escéptica por Venus y la cobertura de prensa.

«The following night at Hillsdale, a town some sixty miles away, eighty to ninety college students watched from their dorm windows as lights flew low to the ground.» — y el de Hillsdale la noche siguiente, con ochenta o noventa estudiantes mirando desde las ventanas del dormitorio.

«Who could take it seriously when its most visible advocates were charlatans spreading wild and unsubstantiated claims in an effort to cash in on popular interest?» — el agravante que le importa del movimiento de contactados: los voceros más visibles del asunto eran charlatanes.

«Later he edited Flying Saucers, the only regular newsstand magazine devoted to saucers in the late 1950s and 1960s.» — y la revista Flying Saucers, única de puesto dedicada al tema en los cincuenta y sesenta tardíos.

«Palmer quarreled with NICAP and rejected the extraterrestrial hypothesis in favor of a civilization living inside the earth as the source of the saucers.» — la ruptura de Palmer con NICAP: rechazó la hipótesis extraterrestre en favor de una civilización dentro de la Tierra.

«Boom times favored UFOs until 1958, but the next half dozen years proved a bust. The saucers still put on a good show—for example, in 1959 three large luminous spheres paced an airliner flying over Pennsylvania as passengers and crew watched, while in New Guinea an Anglican missionary, Father William Gill, and thirty-seven of his parishioners watched a UFO for four hours» — el fin del auge en 1958, con dos casos que aún dio la época: las esferas sobre Pensilvania y el padre William Gill con treinta y siete feligreses en Nueva Guinea.

«About 5 a.m. he saw a light in the trees. It rose into clear view, an oval object so brilliant his eyes watered to look at it, and began to move away.» — lo que el ayudante del sheriff Dale Spaur dijo haber visto en Portage County, Ohio, el 17 de abril de 1966.

«The turning point followed a rash of sightings in Michigan during March 1966. A rural family in Dexter watched a red glowing disk land in a swampy area on the twentieth.» — el avistamiento de Dexter, Michigan, del 20 de marzo de 1966, como punto de inflexión.

«A spirit of goodwill greeted this effort as the scientific study UFOs had always needed. Donald Keyhoe feared the Air Force still pulled the strings, but Condon had a reputation for independence and Keyhoe pledged the cooperation of NICAP to make certain that investigators confronted the best reports. Hynek, Jacques Vallee, Keyhoe, and Richard Hall briefed the project personnel, and prospects seemed bright for a fair and aboveboard hearing,» — Bullard registra el recibimiento cordial del proyecto de Colorado, con Keyhoe comprometiendo la cooperación de NICAP pese a su recelo.

«In January 1967 an Air Force representative suggested an anti-extraterrestrial conclusion as a way to help the Air Force get out of the UFO business. Condon had never thought very highly of the subject and seemed glad to oblige.» — el primer viraje: un representante de la Fuerza Aérea sugiere la conclusión antiextraterrestre como salida, y Condon accede de buena gana.

«Condon spent little time on the project and showed interest only in crackpot cases, while his continued flippant public remarks strained relationships with cooperating groups like NICAP and APRO.» — el desempeño de Condon: poco tiempo dedicado, interés solo por los casos estrafalarios y comentarios públicos que tensaron la relación con NICAP y APRO.

«Internal tensions divided the project workers as well. Robert J. Low, assistant dean of the graduate school, served as project coordinator and sided with Condon, while many working members of the project, led by University of Colorado psychologist David R. Saunders, rankled at administrative bias and contemplated a minority report.» — la división interna, con Robert J. Low del lado de Condon y el psicólogo David R. Saunders encabezando a los inconformes.

«The most damning evidence of that bias surfaced in July 1967. In a memo dated August 9, 1966, to other university administrators,» — fecha la aparición del memorando de Low que él llama la evidencia más condenatoria del sesgo.

«This cynical approach expressed Low’s desire to win project funding for the university and belied his initial open-minded approach to UFO research, but project members already concerned about the drift of the study read a confirmation of their worst fears.» — lee el memorando por su motivo —conseguir el financiamiento— y por su efecto sobre quienes ya sospechaban.

«Condon’s disdain for the subject and lack of rapport with the staff combined with Low's support for Condon and loyalty to the university's bottom line to widen a growing divide between administrators and investigators. Low's “trick” message poisoned the waters beyond any hope of recovery.» — la suma de factores que rompió el proyecto: desdén de Condon, lealtad de Low a las finanzas de la universidad, y el memorando circulando.

«Saunders circulated the memo to other project members; it soon reached Keyhoe and James McDonald, who recycled it back to the author. Low and Condon felt betrayed and made a bad situation worse.» — la ruta del memorando: de Saunders a Keyhoe y a James McDonald, que se lo devolvió al autor.

«As the committee disintegrated as a cooperative team, McDonald publicly denounced the project, NICAP withdrew its cooperation, and John Fuller blasted the study in a May 14 Look magazine article titled “Flying Saucer Fiasco.» — el desenlace público: McDonald denuncia el proyecto, NICAP retira su cooperación y John Fuller lo fulmina en Look.

«Ufologists resigned themselves to rejection, but when it arrived the bleak and absolute dismissal stung with bitter disappointment. Condon pronounced that the project uncovered nothing to justify further study of UFOs, and the reports added nothing new to scientific knowledge.» — el veredicto de Condon, y el efecto que tuvo sobre quienes ya lo esperaban.

«Readers who ventured into the cavernous interior of the study objected that the conclusion seemed written in a vacuum, disconnected from the study proper and even at odds with the investigative reports. How could UFOs hold no interests when over one-fourth of the cases remained unexplained, including many of the most detailed, provocative examples?» — la objeción de fondo: la conclusión parecía escrita al vacío, y contra los propios reportes, con más de un cuarto de casos sin explicar.

«How could science fail to gain when some of the explanations raised more questions than they answered, like one case evaluated as a “natural phenomenon, which is so rare that it has apparently never been reported before or since» — la segunda objeción, con la explicación que él mismo cita: un fenómeno natural tan raro que al parecer nunca se había reportado.

«Despite criticisms, controversies, and inadequacies, the National Academy of Sciences and the New York Times rubberstamped the study with instant approval while the Air Force welcomed this pretext to shut down Project Blue Book as unnecessary. Everyone heard the verdict; no one listened to the appeal.» — el aval de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias y del New York Times, el cierre de Blue Book, y la frase con que resume: nadie escuchó la apelación.

«The Condon experience began with the euphoric faith that a fair hearing would convince everyone but ended with a conviction that the subject would never get a fair shake from official science. This betrayal set in concrete an “us-versusthem” mentality among ufologists as they came to distrust whatever official science and government had to say about UFOs.» — lo que a su juicio dejó el episodio: una mentalidad de nosotros contra ellos, cimentada en la desconfianza hacia la ciencia oficial.

«The immediate consequences of the Condon report were catastrophic for ufology. Domestic sightings had declined after mid-1967, and by early 1969 the UFOs themselves contributed nothing to cushion the shock.» — mide las consecuencias inmediatas, agravadas porque los avistamientos ya venían a la baja.

«The tide of public interest had turned from spaceships to metaphysical preoccupations in the interim. Extraterrestrial themes continued to flourish only in connection with the Bermuda Triangle and ancient astronauts, as Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? (1970) set off a flurry of speculative books about alien visits in the distant past.» — el desplazamiento del interés hacia lo metafísico, con el Triángulo de las Bermudas y los antiguos astronautas de Chariots of the Gods? como sobrevivientes.

«By December 1969 membership in NICAP plunged below 5,000 after a peak of 14,000 in 1966. The Board of Governors fired Keyhoe to save the financially strapped organization,» — las cifras del derrumbe de NICAP y el despido de Keyhoe por su propia mesa directiva.

«APRO suffered but survived; other landmarks, like James Moseley’s Saucer News, disappeared in the lean years from 1969 to 1973.» — el saldo de los años flacos: APRO sobrevivió, el Saucer News de Moseley no.

«Begun in May 1969, the Midwest UFO Network soon expanded nationwide to become the Mutual UFO Network. MUFON delegated investigative responsibilities to statewide and local-level subgroups, initiated an education program for field investigators, published a magazine (now monthly and titled the MUFON UFO Journal), and sponsored an annual symposium to create the largest and most active UFO organization in the country.» — el nacimiento y la forma de MUFON: subgrupos estatales, programa de formación de investigadores, revista y simposio anual.

«Stirrings of mainstream scientific curiosity not only survived the Colorado project but gathered force over the next several years. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics established a subcommittee on UFOs, while the House Committee on Science and Astronautics held a hearing on July 29, 1968, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sponsored a UFO symposium on December 26-27, 1969.» — la curiosidad científica que sobrevivió al proyecto de Colorado: subcomité del AIAA, audiencia en la Cámara y simposio de la AAAS.

«In the House hearings and the AAAS symposium James McDonald and other proponents argued a strong defense against skeptical astronomers Donald Menzel and Carl Sagan.» — el enfrentamiento en esas dos sedes entre James McDonald y los astrónomos escépticos Donald Menzel y Carl Sagan.

«At both meetings McDonald found an unlikely ally at his side—J. Allen Hynek, the longtime astronomy consultant to the Air Force. Hynek’s conversion from doubter to proponent progressed over the years until even as he spoke of swamp gas he already regarded UFOs as an intriguing scientific problem.» — la conversión de J. Allen Hynek, que según Bullard ya consideraba el asunto un problema científico cuando hablaba del gas de pantano.

«Slow to go public with his convictions, the urging of his former student Jacques Vallee and pressure from McDonald combined with the events of 1966 to convince him that the time was right to say UFOs merited serious study in a letter to Science, published on October 21.» — quiénes lo empujaron a hablar: su antiguo alumno Jacques Vallee y la presión de McDonald, más los sucesos de 1966; la carta salió en Science.

«Hynek laid out strong cases and a framework for study in his 1972 book, The UFO Experience. He classified reports in a descriptive scheme that included daylight disks, nocturnal lights, radar-visual sightings, and close encounters of the first, second, and third kinds (defined as UFOs viewed within a few hundred feet; physical effects from a UFO; and occupants associated with a UFO).» — el esquema descriptivo de The UFO Experience, de 1972, con los encuentros cercanos de primero, segundo y tercer tipo definidos.

«These close-encounter designations entered popular usage, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind becoming the title of a famous Steven Spielberg movie in 1977.» — el paso de esa clasificación al uso popular, con la película de Steven Spielberg de 1977.

«Hynek was impressed that UFOs presented a limited range of appearances and actions that set UFOs apart as an independent phenomenon. He avoided speculation about the nature of UFOs but concluded that beyond misperceptions there remains “a stubborn, unyielding residue of ‘incredible reports from credible people.» — lo que a Hynek le impresionaba y su abstención declarada: no especula sobre la naturaleza, y retiene el residuo obstinado, citado textualmente.

«In late 1973 Hynek lent his name and reputation to a new organization when he joined with some of his hitherto invisible colleagues to form the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), intending it to represent the flagship of scholarly excellence for the field. The center would publish case histories, research monographs, and a refereed journal, functions that along with the MUFON symposia and research grants awarded from 1979 onward by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) decked out ufology with the regalia of a quasi-academic discipline.» — la fundación de CUFOS y lo que él dice que consiguió, junto con MUFON y FUFOR: los adornos de una disciplina cuasiacadémica.

«A skeptical front challenged the new sophistication of ufology with the organization of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) in 1976. Its magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, has become the forum in a crusade against UFOs, creationism, astrology, “alternative” medicine, and other supposedly pseudoscientific or irrational beliefs.» — la respuesta escéptica: el CSICOP de 1976 y su revista Skeptical Inquirer, en cruzada también contra el creacionismo y la astrología.

«Aviation editor Philip J. Klass emerged as the most outspoken UFO skeptic from the 1970s to the 1990s. He found conventional explanations for seemingly inexplicable cases and argued that all UFO evidence broke down into hoax, error, belief, and self-delusion on close examination. Other CSICOP skeptics, among them writer Robert Sheaffer, former police investigator Joe Nickell, former NASA mission controller James E. Oberg, and University of Kentucky psychology professor Robert A. Baker, joined Klass to harry the credulous—or muddy the waters with half-truths, flimsy theories, and ad hominem invective, as ufologists often see it.» — el papel de Philip J. Klass y su tesis, y a continuación la nómina de escépticos con las dos lecturas del mismo trabajo, sin arbitrar entre ellas.

«Ufologists of the 1950s listened for the clank of metallic craft with advanced but clearly technological characteristics and filtered out any contradictory or overly bizarre reports as instances of hoax, exaggeration, or error. From the mid-1960s onward this restrictive attitude turned around as ufologists not only accepted but even sought out the strangest claims as the most revealing face of the phenomenon.» — el giro de los sesenta: de filtrar lo bizarro como error a buscarlo como la cara más reveladora del fenómeno.

«The British magazine Flying Saucer Review (FSR) became the leading forum for close-encounter and high-strangeness reports in the 1960s. An example is the case of Maurice Masse, a respected farmer of Valensole, France. Early in the morning of July 1, 1965, as he worked in his lavender field, he heard a whistling sound and walked around a hillock to find an egg-shaped object the size of a car perched on four legs, like a giant spider. Near it stood two humanoid beings the size of children, with enormous hairless heads and mouths like lipless holes.» — el papel de Flying Saucer Review y el caso de Maurice Masse, agricultor de Valensole, del 1 de julio de 1965.

«Here was FSR at its best, documenting the physical effects and baffling actions of a close encounter of the third kind with interviews and field investigations by leading French ufologist Aimé Michel. Readers could also find reports of UFO-related physical injury and healing, unusual animal reactions, bending beams of light, and teleportations, tales of motorists suddenly finding themselves hundreds of miles from the spot where they encountered a UFO. FSR did not play the advocate and insist all accounts were true, rather it portrayed the UFO phenomenon as wider and stranger than nuts-and-bolts ufologists admitted.» — lo que le reconoce a la revista: documentar sin hacer de abogada, y mostrar el fenómeno más ancho y más raro de lo que admitían los ufólogos de tuerca y tornillo.

«One case stood out from all others as the most arresting close encounter of the era. Barney and Betty Hill drove home to Portsmouth through the mountains of New Hampshire on the night of September 19, 1961. The road was deserted and the landscape lonely as the Hills watched a distant light seem to pace the car for a number of miles then turn and draw gradually nearer, growing over time into a huge object the shape of a pancake with two rows of lighted windows hovering ahead of the car.» — abre el caso de Barney y Betty Hill, del 19 de septiembre de 1961, en las montañas de New Hampshire.

«Barney stopped to look at the object with binoculars and saw several beings inside the craft; one of them looked back at him and he sped off in panic. A series of beeps sounded, followed by a second series, and suddenly the UFO was gone. The Hills felt groggy and surprised when a road sign located them thirty miles from the place where they had been seemingly minutes before.» — el núcleo del caso: los seres vistos con binoculares, las dos series de pitidos y el salto de treinta millas.

«Ten days later Betty experienced vivid and recurrent nightmares of strange beings taking her aboard the UFO, She described the sighting in a letter to Donald Keyhoe, and several NICAP investigators interviewed the Hills beginning in October. In reviewing the sequence of events the Hills became aware that they arrived home some two hours later than they should have.» — las pesadillas de Betty, la carta a Keyhoe y el momento en que los Hill notan las dos horas faltantes.

«Over the following months Barney sought medical attention for blood pressure and ulcers, but his problems seemed rooted in psychological rather than physical causes. He became a patient of Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, who identified the UFO experience as an apparent source of anxiety and carried out hypnosis sessions with both the Hills from February till June 1964.» — la entrada del psiquiatra Benjamin Simon y las sesiones de hipnosis de 1964.

«Under hypnosis a mental block seemed to crumble, and they filled in the missing hours of their journey with the story of a UFO encounter of the closest and most astounding kind.» — lo que salió bajo hipnosis, dicho con el verbo puesto: el bloqueo pareció ceder.

«He stood out as the iconic leader of the movement, a thoughtful, cautious, eloquent figure who inspired confidence and lured other interested scientists into an “invisible college” of experts, bringing hope that UFO study would progress outside the channels of official science.» — el papel de Hynek tras la muerte de McDonald en 1971, con su colegio invisible de expertos.

«but did not recede into the distance; rather it climbed some twenty meters then vanished in an instant. Masse’s immobility wore off after twenty minutes, and a few days later he experienced a prolonged need to sleep. Indentations on the ground and damaged plants marked the landing site.» — y el detalle que hace al caso raro: el objeto no se alejó, subió veinte metros y se desvaneció en un instante.

«John Fuller learned about the case while he investigated UFOs in New Hampshire and prepared a book with cooperation of the Hills and Dr. Simon. Published as The Interrupted Journey and serialized in Look magazine in October 1966, the Hill abduction became perhaps the most talked about encounter in a year crowded with spectacular UFO stories. For once the account was full, detailed, and documented. For once two witnesses confirmed the experience» — Bullard fecha la publicación del caso Hill en The Interrupted Journey y en Look, en octubre de 1966, y dice por qué pesó tanto.

«Dr. Simon believed the abduction was a fantasy nurtured by the frightening UFO sighting and Betty's nightmares. After considering these explanations Barney rejected them, saying that the abduction memories felt as real to him as any other memories and he had to accept them as such.» — consigna las dos posiciones sin arbitrar: para Simon fue fantasía alimentada por el susto y las pesadillas; Barney Hill la rechazó.

«An Ohio school teacher, Marjorie Fish, constructed a model of the local star system and compared it with the star diagram Betty Hill drew under hypnosis. The pattern matched a view of the Zeta Reticuli star system. An ensuing debate appeared in Astronomy magazine in 1974, with Carl Sagan arguing that the match was a matter of chance, while some ufologists continue to point out that the more we learn about Zeta Reticuli, the better it suits the criteria for a habitable star system.» — el episodio de Marjorie Fish y el mapa de Zeta Reticuli, con Carl Sagan atribuyéndolo al azar y los ufólogos insistiendo.

«Despite the potential importance of the Hill case for understanding UFOs, ufologists did not know quite what to make of it and were slow to factor it into their thinking. It remained a gray eminence, isolated from the rest of ufology until abductions took center stage during the next decade.» — lo que llama la atención en la recepción: los ufólogos no supieron qué hacer con el caso y tardaron en incorporarlo.

«Strange as it was, abduction represented high strangeness of a comprehensible sort. If aliens studied the earth with scientific curiosity, sooner or later they would have to take an interest in the most plentiful large mammals and give humans a onceover in the lab.» — distingue grados de extrañeza: la abducción sigue siendo comprensible si se supone curiosidad científica alienígena.

«Other UFO-related activity appeared to have more in common with hauntings than with extraterrestrial visitation, and none more so than a series of weird events around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in late 1966 and 1967. Sightings were commonplace in this window area, and a favorite rendezvous for UFO-watching was a large desolate reserve that had served for explosives storage during World War II. Two couples drove through the grounds one night in November 1966 when a tall figure loomed up ahead of them, humanlike until it unfolded batlike wings and stared at the startled witnesses with red glowing eyes. The young couples fled, but the “Mothman’” flew after them even at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. Hundreds of people combed the explosives site the next day; over the next year more than a hundred adults would see Mothman.» — el caso de Point Pleasant, Virginia Occidental, de 1966 y 1967, con la figura alada de ojos rojos que llamaron Mothman.

«John A. Keel, a veteran writer on strange phenomena, joined the investigation and interviewed witnesses throughout 1967. He recounted his experiences in The Mothman Prophecies (1975), a book interwoven with one weird incident after another, not only UFOs and the monster but strange sounds and TV interference, a thirty-foot circle burned into a farmer's field, and animals that disappeared or died in mysterious ways, sometimes with the blood drained as if attacked by a vampire.» — la investigación de John A. Keel y el inventario de rarezas de The Mothman Prophecies, de 1975.

«Time and again Keel encountered the Men in Black—odd looking, oddly dressed individuals speaking in peculiar ways, seemingly too otherworldly to understand the need to wear a coat in subfreezing weather, yet somehow aware of Keel’s activities down to secret details.» — la descripción de los Hombres de Negro que Keel decía encontrar, con el detalle del abrigo que no sabían usar.

«The last Mothman sighting occurred on November 15, 1967; one month later the Silver Bridge between Point Pleasant and Ohio collapsed, resulting in over forty deaths. Many people came to regard the strange events of the past year as a premonition of this disaster.» — el desenlace: el derrumbe del Silver Bridge un mes después del último avistamiento, leído por muchos como premonición.

«A tolerance for strangeness had not grown robust enough in the 1950s to accept shadowy figures and eerie phone calls as interlocking pieces of the puzzle, but by the late 1960s a growing number of ufologists perceived every strange event as part of a pattern no matter how vast, tenuous, and outlandish it grew.» — mide el cambio de umbral: lo que los cincuenta no habrían aceptado, los sesenta tardíos lo integran al mismo patrón.

«With rising acceptance for strangeness came adventurous attempts to explain it. Jacques Vallee nailed a series of radical theses to the door of established ufology, starting with Passport to Magonia in 1969. There he sought “to build a bridge between two clusters of rumors, observations, and reports,’ one the claims of UFO encounters, the other an unlikely company of fairy legends and demonological traditions. Stripped down to basic events, UFO accounts and fairy folklore revealed enough likenesses to suggest a unitary phenomenon.» — sitúa Passport to Magonia, de 1969, y el puente que Vallee quiso tender entre los encuentros ovni y la leyenda de hadas y la demonología.

«These mind-stretching theories invigorated the staid conceptual framework of ufology but divided its intellectual strategy. As ufologists with a scientific bent tried to groom the mystery for official favor, “paraufologists” rejected science as inadequate and buried the extraterrestrial hypothesis as a science-fiction caricature.» — el efecto de esas teorías sobre el campo: vigorizaron el marco y partieron su estrategia entre científicos y paraufólogos.

«The truth no longer depended on hard evidence or even discrimination of hoaxes from sincere experiential claims. Every piece belonged to the puzzle, if only the theorists could make the puzzle big enough.» — el costo que le ve a esa apertura: la verdad deja de depender de la evidencia y hasta de distinguir el fraude del testimonio sincero.

«An idea that vast mysterious forces united all things strange into a coherent whole began well before this time, so did a willingness to engage in speculative associations and to explain one mystery with another mystery. The “New Ufology” simply sanctioned this visionary openness and its methodological liabilities with intellectual respectability, bequeathing a heritage that shapes ufology to the present day.» — y su juicio sobre la Nueva Ufología: no inventó la apertura visionaria, le dio respetabilidad intelectual junto con sus vicios de método.

«The UFOs themselves reaffirmed the vitality of the mystery when a wave of sightings swept northward from the Gulf Coast to inundate the entire country in October 1973." Notable among hundreds of reports was a case from Pascagoula, Mississippi, where Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker went fishing on the night of October 1 when a glowing blue disk landed nearby. Three short mummylike creatures with crabclaw hands seized the men and floated them into the craft. Parker fainted while a large eyelike device examined Hickson.» — la ola de octubre de 1973 y el caso de Pascagoula, Misisipi, con Charles Hickson y Calvin Parker.

«On the eighteenth the crew of an Army Reserve helicopter flying over Ohio noticed a light approaching at high speed on a collision course. Capt. Larry Coyne dived to escape the object, but it hovered in front of the helicopter, a cigar-shaped craft that filled the forward window and beamed a bright green light into the cockpit. A few seconds later the UFO flew off, and Coyne found that the helicopter had ascended some 3,000 feet in that brief time.» — el caso del helicóptero del capitán Larry Coyne sobre Ohio, del 18 de octubre de 1973.

«The public opinion scorecard for a Gallup poll taken in early November found that 95 percent had heard of UFOs, 54 percent thought they were real, and 11 percent said they had sighted one.» — la Gallup de noviembre de 1973, con el once por ciento que decía haber visto uno.

«The 1973 wave rekindled public interest for the rest of the decade, and ufology emerged stronger than ever after the Condon setback. Attention shifted from pursuit of ephemeral objects in the sky toward new classes of evidence offered by abductions and Roswell—evidence that promised not only concrete proof of UFO reality, but also unprecedented insight into the nature and purpose of UFOs.» — el desplazamiento del interés: de los objetos efímeros del cielo a las abducciones y a Roswell como evidencia potencialmente definitiva.

«Ufology seemed poised at last to steer UFOs into the scientific mainstream, yet changes were afoot that, while not fully realized until years later, fostered a corrosive specialization and popularization to create a sense of motion without much sense of direction. A shift of interest from the phenomenon to its implications, a growth of UFOs as a cultural presence rather than a scientific subject, have abetted development of the UFO myth.» — y el diagnóstico contrario: especialización corrosiva y popularización, movimiento sin rumbo, que alimenta el mito.

«Prospects for the scientific study of UFOs looked bright in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when domestic organizations enjoyed a new level of quality and an international problem inspired international response. The French space agency, equivalent to NASA, opened an official UFO investigation in 1977, the Groupe d'Etudes des Phénoménes Aérospatiaux non Identifiés (GEPAN). Between 1979 and 1983, GEPAN received over 1,000 reports and carried out eighteen detailed field studies to conclude that some impressive cases left evidence that did not square readily with conventional solutions.» — la apertura del GEPAN por la agencia espacial francesa en 1977, con sus cifras y su conclusión matizada.

«The British UFO Research Organization (BUFORA) matured into a leading voice for UFO research in Britain, while quality research organizations arose in Australia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Scandinavia. The United Nations in 1978 and the British House of Lords in 1979 held talks on UFOs to confirm that the subject was coming of age as a topic for serious discussion.» — el ascenso de BUFORA y de grupos en Australia, Italia, España, Bélgica y Escandinavia, con la ONU en 1978 y la Cámara de los Lores en 1979.

«Two 1978 incidents in a Southern Hemisphere wave made international news, once when an airline crew filmed UFOs near Kaikoura, New Zealand, on December 21, and earlier on October 21, when pilot Fred Valentich disappeared while flying across the Bass Strait from Moorabben, Australia. In a radio exchange with the air traffic controller, Valentich reported an aircraft with four lights, a huge object that darted around him at high speed, then “orbited” overhead. No further messages followed from Valentich, only a loud metallic sound. Extensive searches found no trace of plane or pilot.» — los dos casos de 1978: la filmación cerca de Kaikoura y la desaparición del piloto Fred Valentich sobre el estrecho de Bass.

«A localized wave of luminous phenomena began at Hessdalen, Norway, in 1981 and continued for several years, attracting an investigation that captured photographs and recorded instrumental data.» — la ola local de Hessdalen, Noruega, desde 1981, con fotografías y registro instrumental.

«A UFO wave covered the Soviet Union during much of 1989. The most sensational report came from Voronezh on September 27, when several teenagers playing in a park late that afternoon saw a spherical object land. A hatch opened and forty adults watched a giant robot creature exit and walk about, causing the paralysis or disappearance of several witnesses before the robot and craft also disappeared—high strangeness played out before a large audience.» — el caso de Voronezh del 27 de septiembre de 1989, con el robot gigante ante cuarenta adultos.

«For critics the only thing giant about the Voronezh story was the audacity of the lie, while its publication simply proved that the Russians had discovered the pleasures of tabloid journalism as the Soviet Union began to crumble and Communist control over the press loosened.» — y la lectura contraria, dicha como de los críticos: la audacia de la mentira y el descubrimiento ruso del periodismo de tabloide.

«Numerous reports of triangular aircraft over Belgium from late 1989 through 1990 were harder to dismiss. Photographs and videotapes provided ample documentation for some unfamiliar aircraft bearing bright lights, while authorities denied that military maneuvers were responsible for the sightings.» — los triángulos sobre Bélgica entre 1989 y 1990, que él dice más difíciles de descartar, con fotos, videos y desmentido oficial.

«The quality of reports worldwide did not suffer despite a dearth of press coverage, and candidates for the honor roll would surely include these noteworthy examples: * On September 19, 1976, an Iranian Air Force jet sent to intercept a brilliant object near Tehran lost all guidance and communications capabilities as it approached the UFO. A second interceptor locked radar on the object but lost targeting and communications when the pilot tried to fire a missile.» — abre su cuadro de honor con el caso de Teherán del 19 de septiembre de 1976, con dos interceptores perdiendo guía y comunicaciones.

«Fourteen children at a Welsh school reported a UFO landing and occupant sighting in 1977, while some sixty children at the Ariel School in Zimbabwe had a similar experience in 1994.» — los dos casos escolares: catorce niños en Gales en 1977 y unos sesenta en la escuela Ariel de Zimbabue en 1994.

«On the night of December 29, 1980, Betty Cash was driving along a Texas road with Vickie Landrum and Landrum’s young grandson when they saw a huge diamond-shaped object hovering ahead, jetting flames from its underside. The two women left the car to see the object better, but Landrum soon returned to comfort the frightened boy. A feeling of heat emanated from the object, and the car became hot to touch despite the chilly evening. After some minutes the object rose in a blast of flame and two dozen large helicopters joined it as it flew slowly away.» — el caso de Betty Cash y Vickie Landrum en Texas, del 29 de diciembre de 1980, con el objeto en diamante y los helicópteros.

«The witnesses drove on but began to feel sick by the time they reached home, with their symptoms proportional in severity to the duration of direct exposure to the object. Betty Cash entered the hospital with peeling skin and patches of hair falling out, remaining there for a total of nearly four weeks. Vickie Landrum suffered sickness and damaged eyesight; neither fully recovered. The boy remained in the car and experienced only minor, temporary illness.» — los efectos físicos del caso, y el dato que le da fuerza: la gravedad fue proporcional a la exposición, y el niño que se quedó en el coche apenas enfermó.

«A farmer in Trans-en-Provence, France, on the afternoon of January 8, 1981, saw an object like two saucers upside down land in his alfalfa field and then take off after a few minutes, An extensive GEPAN investigation on the damaged plants and indentations in the ground revealed effects consistent with some sort of radiation and an object weighing four to five tons. These findings remain controversial, but few other landing cases have had the benefit of such a prompt and thorough investigation.» — el caso de Trans-en-Provence, con la investigación del GEPAN y sus hallazgos, declarados controvertidos en la misma frase.

«A Japan Airlines plane flying over Alaska on November 17, 1986, encountered a Saturn-shaped object described as twice the size of an aircraft carrier. Several smaller objects accompanied the larger one, and the pilot reported feeling heat from the large object when it drew close. Radar from the ground also tracked the UFO.» — el caso de Japan Airlines sobre Alaska, del 17 de noviembre de 1986, con eco de radar desde tierra.

«Four adult members of the Knowles family were driving near Mundrabilla, Western Australia, at 4 a.m. on January 20, 1988, when a light approached the car. The light proved to be an egg-shaped object that pursued and dived at the vehicle for a while, then chased a car passing in the opposite direction. The object returned and swooped over the Knowleses’ car, lifting it into the air then dropping it and rupturing one of the tires. Several other witnesses in the area reported an egg-shaped luminous object.» — el caso de la familia Knowles en Mundrabilla, Australia Occidental, del 20 de enero de 1988.

«Critics dismissed Pascagoula as a hoax and Coyne as a combination of errors, with the helicopter actually climbing when the pilot thought it descended,» — la crítica a los dos casos: fraude en Pascagoula y suma de errores en Coyne, con el helicóptero subiendo cuando el piloto creía descender.

«Spectacular UFO sightings justified a revitalized inquiry. Between 1977 and 1979 Wales and the British Midlands hosted visits, landings, and high-strangeness events.» — las visitas y aterrizajes de Gales y las Midlands británicas entre 1977 y 1979.

«Off the Adriatic Coast of Italy in 1978, UFOs dived into the water or burst out from beneath the sea with such frequency that fishermen feared to sail.» — la ola adriática de 1978, con objetos entrando y saliendo del mar y pescadores que no zarpaban.

«Others reported UFOs that sucked blood from humans and animals, for which reason the objects were called chupa-chupas (“suckers”). At times people went hungry because they felt too threatened to hunt or fish, and Brazilian military authorities responded to the near panic with an investigation.» — el nombre local, chupa-chupas, y la respuesta de los militares brasileños ante el pánico.

«If lively waves played out in other parts of the world, it was a different story in the United States. Occasional local waves continued, such as a concentration of sightings centered on Belleville, Wisconsin, in January to March of 1987, or Fyffe, Alabama, in February 1989.” The Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington State became a site for numerous observations of luminous objects during 1975-1976, and sporadic sightings of triangular objects near Corydon, Indiana, occurred throughout the 1980s and 1990s.°° A spectacular series of multiwitness reports described lighted, V-shaped objects over the Hudson Valley in 1983-1984, and these “Westchester Wing” sightings even attracted considerable media attention.» — el contraste estadounidense: oleadas locales y las alas de Westchester del valle del Hudson entre 1983 y 1984.

«but Hickson and Parker seemed genuinely frightened» — la defensa de los dos casos: el miedo de Hickson y Parker parecía genuino, y las investigaciones extensas sostienen el objeto desconocido de Coyne.

«Such impressive UFO activity won national news coverage even in competition with the Yom Kippur War» — sitúa la cobertura en su competencia noticiosa de octubre de 1973, con la guerra de Yom Kipur y la renuncia de Spiro Agnew.

«northeastern Brazil served as the setting for some of the strangest UFO reports on record from 1977 till 1980.» — sitúa el nordeste brasileño entre 1977 y 1980 como escenario de los reportes más raros del registro.

«luminous rectangular objects pursued them into the jungle and tried to kidnap them or fired a beam of light that resulted in the victim’s death within a few hours or days.» — lo que los cazadores nocturnos brasileños reportaban: objetos rectangulares luminosos que intentaban raptarlos, y muertes atribuidas al haz de luz.

«after 1973 no massive, nationwide surge excited the entire country and captivated media interest.» — la ruptura con el patrón anterior: después de 1973 ninguna oleada nacional volvió a sacudir al país.

«In 1976 CUFOS could afford a full-time investigator and Allan Hendry took on the job. A recent college graduate with a degree in astronomy, he investigated 1,307 reports by 1979 and failed to identify only 113 cases (8.6 percent) as conventional objects. For him the impasse of ufology resulted not from inherent elusiveness of the phenomenon but from the limitations of human witnesses spreading confusion through the data.» — el trabajo de Allan Hendry en CUFOS, con sus cifras: 1 307 reportes y 113 sin identificar, el 8,6 por ciento.

«The sighting report remained the basic unit of UFO study, but even when combed and examined with microscopic closeness, an account of an object in the sky was still relatively information starved. Descriptions of ordinary sightings had reached their lével, and a thousand more of the same would add nothing new.» — el diagnóstico técnico: el reporte de avistamiento estaba agotado como unidad de estudio.

«The field needed a breakthrough, and ufologists reached for the compelling, potentially definitive evidence of abductions and Roswell to prove the reality of UFOs once and for all. This reorientation changed the popular face of UFOs from vessels in the sky to spaceships on the ground and added unprecedented complexity to the UFO story.» — el giro que de ahí resultó: de naves en el cielo a naves en el suelo, con abducciones y Roswell por evidencia.

«As a crew of seven loggers drove home near Heber, Arizona, on the evening of November 5, they stopped the truck to look at a disk with luminous panels hovering just off the road at treetop level. Travis Walton ran from the truck toward the object until a beam of light from the UFO knocked him backward. His companions fled in panic. When they drove back to the scene a few minutes later, the men found no trace of Walton or the disk.» — el caso de Travis Walton, del 5 de noviembre de 1975, cerca de Heber, Arizona.

«He said he awakened in a room surrounded by several short gray beings with large heads and eyes. He threatened them and fled to another room, where he sat in a chair and manipulated a sort of star map. A tall human man with blond hair then escorted Walton outside the craft into a vast hangarlike area. They entered a room where others who looked like clones of the guide waited, and one of them, a woman, placed a device like an oxygen mask over his face and he blacked out. He next found himself lying on the ground beside a highway, looking up at a disk as it receded into the sky.» — lo que Walton relató de su cautiverio: los seres grises pequeños, el mapa estelar, el guía humano rubio y la mascarilla.

«Walton's story captured national attention and rekindled public interest in abductions, but skeptics cried hoax. Phil Klass proposed that the woodcutters fell behind schedule on a logging job and concocted a tall tale based on The UFO Incident, an NBC TV movie about the Hill abduction that aired on October 20, as a way to escape their contract.» — consigna la acusación de fraude de Phil Klass, con su hipótesis del contrato de tala y la película de televisión sobre el caso Hill.

«Yet counter to Benjamin Franklin's dictum that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead, none of the other witnesses has recanted or attempted to spoil the modest fame that Walton has enjoyed.» — y le pone el contrapeso, con el dicho de Benjamin Franklin de por medio: ningún otro testigo se retractó.

«Abductions also appealed to a newcomer, noted New York artist Budd Hopkins. After he published a UFO article in the Village Voice in 1976, people began to contact him with vague misgivings that resonated with possible UFO phenomena.» — la entrada de Budd Hopkins, artista neoyorquino, a partir de un artículo en el Village Voice de 1976.

«Hypnosis unfolded a full abduction experience as the substance behind that formless dread. In Missing Time (1981) Hopkins introduced a series of similar cases as evidence that experiences with conscious clues amounted to the tip of an iceberg, while the true extent of the abduction problem remained out of sight and unfathomed, marked in the everyday lives of most abductees by no more than a surface ripple of anxiety.» — la tesis de Missing Time, de 1981: los casos con indicios conscientes son la punta del iceberg.

«The trickle of cases grew into a torrent with some three hundred in the literature by 1985 and thousands more in the files of investigators. International in scope, abduction reports came from Africa, Australia, Europe, South America, and proliferated in former Soviet territories and in China.» — mide el crecimiento del material: unos trescientos casos publicados para 1985 y miles en archivos, con alcance internacional.

«The most newsworthy claimant to step forward has been popular horror novelist Whitley Strieber. He sought out Hopkins in 1986 to cope with a baffling experience, and hypnotic investigation soon uncovered memories of aliens removing him from his bedroom for examination aboard a UFO. ‘This experience became the basis of his best-selling book, Communion (1987), bearing a cover illustration of an alien face that became a popular icon.» — el caso de Whitley Strieber, su Communion de 1987 y la portada que se volvió icono popular.

«Abductions lit up the UFO scene with a fresh burst of excitement. The stories were incredible yet surprisingly consistent, and the narrators were sincere people from all walks of life, qualities that won over initial doubters like Temple University history professor David Jacobs and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, who became vigorous and convinced investigators.» — por qué convencieron: relatos increíbles y consistentes, narradores sinceros, y la conversión de David Jacobs y John Mack.

«Promise of some definitive proof seemed almost within grasp, whether in documentation for a missing fetus, recovery of an alien implant, or videotape of a bedroom intrusion. Abductions dominated the 1987 MUFON Symposium and became the subject of a conference held on the campus of MIT in 1992, where abductees, ufologists, and scholars in multiple disciplines met to consider the phenomenon.» — la expectativa de prueba definitiva —feto, implante, video— y la institucionalización del tema, con la conferencia del MIT de 1992.

«Another emerging body of assertions—that UFOs have crashed and the government retrieved the wreckage—served even better than abductions to stir public and ufological adrenalin. The story began as a small footnote to the 1947 wave: On July 8 the wire services sent out news that the military had captured a fallen disk near Roswell, New Mexico. Rancher Mac Brazel first spotted the wreckage, and.an intelligence officer, Maj. Jesse Marcel, took charge of collecting the debris and flew it to Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth.» — el inicio documental de Roswell: el cable del 8 de julio de 1947, el ranchero Mac Brazel y el mayor Jesse Marcel.

«The next day headlines in the Roswell Daily Herald read “Gen. Ramey Empties Roswell Saucer,’ and photos showed Marcel holding flimsy wreckage of a balloon and radar reflectors.” This sudden anticlimax ended the Roswell saga for thirty years without a hint of future glory.» — el desmentido del día siguiente, con Marcel fotografiado sosteniendo restos de globo y reflectores de radar.

«When Marcel told his story in 1978, he stated that the sticks and tinfoil spread on the floor for newspaper photographers was unrelated to the crash and the real debris did not come from this earth. Witnesses began to step forward, such as a man claiming that he flew the wreckage out of Roswell, and acquaintances of Barney Barnett, a deceased civil engineer said to have reported a second crash site on the Plains of San Agustin, 150 miles west of the Brazel site. Barnett went on to describe a saucer-shaped craft that had plowed into the ground and short, large-headed aliens who were found dead near the wreck. He also mentioned some archaeologists who witnessed the scene before soldiers arrived and swore everyone to secrecy.» — la reapertura del caso en 1978 y la aparición de testigos, incluido el segundo sitio de las Llanuras de San Agustín atribuido a Barney Barnett.

«The story as it first emerged during the 1980s built up a compelling case that the military quickly cordoned off a mysterious crash site and cleared the area of debris. Witness after witness confirmed having seen the material, participated in the cleanup, or transported the debris.» — reconoce la fuerza del caso Roswell tal como se armó en los ochenta: el cordón militar y la limpieza del sitio, confirmados por testigo tras testigo.

«Marcel and others described fragments that were sticklike and almost weightless yet too strong to bend or break, while other pieces resembled shards of tinfoil.» — la descripción de los fragmentos: como varillas, casi sin peso y sin doblarse ni romperse.

«The more sensational story of aliens also found willing collaborators, one being Glenn Dennis, a Roswell undertaker who claimed that he delivered four child-sized coffins to the air base in Roswell and that he heard a nurse stationed there describe the dead aliens.» — la parte sensacional del relato, con el funerario Glenn Dennis, los cuatro ataúdes de talla infantil y la enfermera.

«This credibility began to suffer when testimony did not stop with corroboration or filling in the gaps but proliferated into rival, often incompatible scenarios. Crash sites multiplied as Jim Ragsdale claimed in 1993 that he and a now-deceased girlfriend saw a UFO fall during a thunderstorm at a place thirty miles south of the Brazel site. Frank Kaufmann, who claimed to be an intelligence official, located the alien bodies about thirty miles southeast of Brazel’s find and transferred the archaeologists to this site in a later revision of the story. Kaufmann also revealed that the craft was not disk shaped but elongated like a modern stealth aircraft.» — el momento en que la credibilidad se desploma: los sitios de choque se multiplican con Jim Ragsdale y Frank Kaufmann, y la nave deja de ser disco.

«In 1990 Gerald Anderson reported that his family and a party of archaeologists had stumbled onto the scene at San Agustin just after the crash, where they saw an alien survivor walking near the wreckage. Before Anderson's yarn collapsed as a hoax, several other witnesses had stepped forward to confirm one or more live aliens and the claim took root as an established element of the story. Additions, changes in testimony, contradictory claims, and flexible hypotheses lost the thread of history in a Roswell labyrinth bewildering in its twists and turns.» — el caso de Gerald Anderson, que colapsó como fraude y aun así dejó al alienígena vivo instalado como elemento del relato.

«If the story confused ufologists, it fascinated the public and made Roswell a household name. Widespread interest led New Mexico Representative Steven Schiff to initiaté a General Accounting Office investigation in 1994. Meanwhile, the Air Force rushed its own investigation and concluded that the wreckage belonged to a Project Mogul balloon array that had disappeared in June 1947. Project Mogul was an effort to detect anticipated Soviet nuclear tests and was top secret at the time—thus explaining the secrecy and care taken to gather all scraps of wreckage.» — la investigación que el representante Steven Schiff pidió a la GAO en 1994, y la del propio ejército, que dio con el Project Mogul.

«A 1997 Gallup poll revealed that 31 percent of respondents believed that a spaceship had crashed and 64 percent doubted that balloons were responsible for the Roswell story.» — la Gallup de 1997, con el sesenta y cuatro por ciento que dudaba de la explicación por globos.

«In a larger sense official reports and learned disputes ceased to carry any weight because the cultural reality of the Roswell crash overshadowed its historical reality. Roswell has entrenched itself so deeply in the popular mind that audiences for the blockbuster movie Independence Day (1996) took in stride a captive saucer kept so secret not even the president knew of it.» — la fórmula que le importa: la realidad cultural de Roswell tapó a la histórica.

«The UFO Museum in Roswell is one of the major tourist attractions in New Mexico, while the annual Roswell Days has drawn tens of thousands of visitors, especially during the fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1997.!”° The Roswell mythology continues to flourish and evolve as claimants continue to come forward with accounts of seeing wreckage or working with unearthly technology. An alien autopsy film showing the supposed dissection of a dead Roswell alien surfaced in 1995 and caused a brief sensation, though most investigators regarded the film as a transparent hoax.» — el turismo de Roswell, y el falso video de la autopsia alienígena de 1995, que él dice que casi todos los investigadores tuvieron por fraude evidente.

«An opportunity to find out what the government really knew opened in 1974 as the Freedom of Information Act invited a plague of ufologists to descend on the Air Force, FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency in search of UFO-related documents. Thousands of recovered pages exposed exciting case materials like the multiple air base intrusions of 1975, as well as intriguing tidbits like NORAD tracking some ten million uncorrelated targets between the 1960s and the early 1980s to answer, at least to ufologists’ satisfaction, the question of how UFOs could be real but never detected by sophisticated defense radar.» — lo que el FOIA abrió desde 1974, con el dato de NORAD y sus diez millones de blancos no correlacionados.

«These inquiries also indicated that the authorities were more troubled about UFO activity than they admitted. In some instances the documents trapped their agency of origin in an outright lie. For example, in its responses to initial FOIA requests the CIA claimed that its UFO involvement ended with the Rob- -ertson Panel in 1953, only to face proof of continuing interest from the earliest years to the present once a court battle wrested the telltale files from the agency.» — el caso en que los documentos atraparon a la agencia en mentira: la CIA dijo haber terminado con el Robertson Panel en 1953.

«These discoveries nailed down proof that the government knew much, cared much, and hid much about UFOs while telling the public just the opposite, but the findings were also important for what they did not show. No smoking gun confirmed Roswell, and years of government interest betrayed a lack of answers, not the certainty and direction that ought to follow from having a UFO in custody since 1947.» — y lo que los mismos documentos no mostraron: ni pistola humeante para Roswell ni la certeza que se seguiría de tener una nave desde 1947.

«During the mid-1970s farmers and ranchers began to find seemingly healthy cattle suddenly dead without any sign of struggle. Blood seemed drained from the carcass, and genitals, eyes, and ears were removed with apparent surgical precision. The blame first fell on Satanists, but rumors that the killers traveled aboard mysterious helicopters soon implicated UFOs as more likely agents. The cattle mutilation theme entered abduction stories and became a staple in conspiracy tales with grisly details to convict the aliens of hostile intentions.» — las mutilaciones de ganado de mediados de los setenta, y el cambio de culpable: primero satanistas, luego ovnis.

«An investigation headed by former FBI agent Kenneth Rommel Jr. during 1979-1980 concluded that the cattle deaths were due to natural causes, the supposed surgical removals the typical work of scavengers. The deaths appeared out of the ordinary only under the influence of expectations aroused by publicity.» — la investigación de Kenneth Rommel Jr., que atribuyó las muertes a causas naturales y los cortes a carroñeros.

«Some veterinarians dissented that the incisions had the character of laser burns, while Linda Howe and other ufologists still maintain that mutilations are too mysterious for conventional answers to explain. The deaths have continued here and there over the years, with a major epidemic in Argentina beginning in the late 1990s.» — y consigna el disenso sin arbitrar: veterinarios que hablaban de quemaduras de láser, y Linda Howe sosteniendo el misterio.

«The Viking Mars Orbiter sent back a startling image from the Cydonia region in 1976. This photograph showed a remarkably human face of gigantic size gazing up from the surface, an image soon to serve as Exhibit A in an argument that an advanced ancient civilization once lived on the planet. Further exhibits came to light as proponents pored over photographs to identify pyramids and citylike structures near the face. NASA bowed to public interest and targeted the area with the Mars Global Surveyor in 1998, gathering images with tenfold better resolution that broke down the facial features into a natural pile of rubble.» — la cara de Marte de 1976 y su desarme por el Mars Global Surveyor en 1998.

«That night a pulsing red light moved among the trees, broke into several white objects, and disappeared before Colonel Halt and other witnesses. If this official version was not remarkable enough, many rank-and-file servicemen had a story to tell. In the elaborated versions the original three guards lost consciousness when the UFO flashed a light on them, while on the second night parties of troops saw the shadowy figures of occupants inside a translucent UFO, or in yet another version, the UFO landed and aliens emerged to communicate with a general.» — la segunda noche según la versión oficial, y las versiones elaboradas de la tropa, con ocupantes y un general.

«Three British researchers introduced the case in a 1984 book, while Larry Warren, a 7 * . é serviceman on duty at the time, became a spokesman for some of the more sensational claims. An inquiry in Parliament in 1996 ended with the Ministry of Defence stating that the incident had no defense significance. Efforts to explain the UFOs as beams from a nearby lighthouse have not proved very convincing in a case that continues to confuse even as it still attracts attention.» — la entrada del caso a la literatura, el vocero Larry Warren, el dictamen del Ministerio de Defensa y la explicación por el faro cercano, que no le convence.

«One of the most divisive events in UFO history began in the Florida town of Gulf Breeze in November 1987, when several vivid UFO photographs appeared in the local newspaper. Ed Walters, head of a construction company, said he snapped several shots of a lighted object as it hovered near his home. He added that the object struck him with a beam of blue light and lifted him into the air, while a series of contact and abduction claims followed, as well as more clear photographs of structured craft.» — el caso de Gulf Breeze desde noviembre de 1987, con Ed Walters, el haz azul y las fotos de naves estructuradas.

«Gulf Breeze surged to the forefront of interest as some ufologists defended Walters, arguing that he stood to gain little from a hoax and the photos defied explanation as fakes. The opponents responded that when a UFO photo looks too good to be true, it probably is not, and a book contract provided Walters with several hundred thousand dollars of incentive.» — las dos posiciones sobre Gulf Breeze, con el argumento de cada bando y el contrato editorial de por medio.

«Discovery of a model UFO in a house formerly owned by Walters provided damaging evidence, reinforced when local teenagers said that he had entertained them by creating double-exposure photographs before the UFO business began.» — y la evidencia que pesó en contra: la maqueta hallada en una casa que fue de Walters, y los adolescentes que hablaron de dobles exposiciones.

«A certain malaise afflicted the field despite its renewed prospects. By 1977 the UFO mystery was no longer a youngster. It had reached the ripe old age of thirty, with tens of thousands of reports on record» — Bullard nombra el malestar del campo a los treinta años del misterio, con decenas de miles de reportes acumulados y sin prueba.

«That same year Hopkins published his second book, Intruders, telling the story of a young Indianapolis» — el segundo libro de Budd Hopkins, Intruders, del mismo 1987.

«What made the story of “Kathie Davis” (Debbie Tomey) especially striking was her recollection that the aliens impregnated her, removed the fetus, and years later introduced her to a frail child with a combination of human and alien features.» — el caso de Kathie Davis, con el embarazo, el feto retirado y la niña de rasgos mezclados.

«By 1980, when William Moore and Charles Berlitz publicized the crash in The Roswell Incident,» — sitúa The Roswell Incident, de William Moore y Charles Berlitz, en 1980.

«had interviewed some sixty direct or indirect witnesses. The number increased to over two hundred by the early 1990s.» — las cifras de testigos que la investigación de Roswell fue acumulando, de sesenta a más de doscientos.

«No flame or attempt at cutting had any effect on these shards,» — la resistencia al fuego y al corte que se atribuía a los fragmentos de Roswell.

«folded they soon resumed their original shape. Hieroglyphic figures covered some of the fragments.» — y las otras dos propiedades atribuidas: memoria de forma y figuras jeroglíficas.

«The GAO report appeared in July 1995 and satisfied skeptics by finding no evidence for a crashed spaceship,» — el informe de la GAO de julio de 1995, que no halló evidencia de nave estrellada y a la vez reavivó la sospecha de encubrimiento por los documentos perdidos.

«One solution for this dearth of favorable evidence escalated the scope of conspiracy» — cómo se salvó la falta de evidencia favorable: escalando el alcance de la conspiración por encima de la Fuerza Aérea y de la CIA.

«Hints about the identity of those ultimate guardians of UFO secrecy soon began to leak out. One rumor destined for a stellar career in UFO mythology alleged that President Truman established “Majestic 12” or MJ-12, a group of high-ranking military and scientific figures to oversee all UFO-related matters. An associate of William Moore, Jaime Shandera, found a roll of microfilm in his mailbox during December 1984. This film contained a purported presidential briefing document from MJ-12 with the now-familiar scoop on crashed saucers and captive aliens. Various ufologists have continued to find or receive other mysterious documents referring to MJ-12 and its clandestine work.» — el nacimiento de MJ-12: el rumor del grupo creado por Truman y el rollo de microfilme que Jaime Shandera halló en su buzón en diciembre de 1984.

«have accused NASA of doctoring the photographs, even sabotaging two subsequent Mars probes to hide the truth about ruins and monuments on the planet.» — la respuesta de los defensores de la cara de Marte: acusar a la NASA de retocar fotos y de sabotear sondas.

«A memorandum from the deputy base commander, Lt. Col. Charles Halt, stated that guards investigating a possible plane crash came across a triangular, tent-shaped object near the ground» — el caso de Rendlesham del 27 de diciembre de 1980, según el memorando del teniente coronel Charles Halt.

«The next day a patrol found indentations and traces of radiation where the object touched down.» — los rastros del día siguiente en el bosque de Rendlesham: hundimientos y trazas de radiación.

«Mysterious circles began to appear in the wheat fields of southern England during the summer of 1980. These circles started out as lone swirls of flattened plants but graduated in complexity season by season to a main circle with smaller satellites and to vast and intricate works of art by the 1990s.» — fecha los círculos de cultivo en el verano de 1980 y describe su escalada de complejidad.

«Despite little reason for a UFO connection, crop circles filtered into the UFO literature, and by the 1990s they became staple topics at UFO conventions.» — y consigna que la conexión ovni tenía poca razón de ser y aun así se hizo tema fijo de los congresos.

«The mystery seemed about to blow away in 1991 when two retired men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, demonstrated how to construct circles by simple means, but proponents refused to let go and dismissed the “Doug and Dave” hoax solution as inadequate to explain how intricate forms could appear overnight without any disturbance to arouse the neighbors.» — la demostración de Doug Bower y Dave Chorley en 1991, y el argumento con que los defensores la rechazaron.

«The undeniable beauty of the formations continues to inspire wonder and a mystical turn where some people read alien messages in crop circles and link them with transformation of consciousness.» — el giro místico que atribuye a la belleza de las formaciones: mensajes alienígenas y transformación de la conciencia.

«By the late 1980s most thoughtful ufologists had given up exotic theories and returned to the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH). Abductions suggested it, Roswell demanded it—the foremost influences on the field thus lent a powerful incentive to reconsider the ETH. Jacques Vallee reemphasized the physical aspects of UFO phenomena even as he continued to theorize about a control system, and Jerome Clark renounced his speculations from The Unidentified to reembrace the ETH as the best solution available.» — el regreso a la hipótesis extraterrestre a finales de los ochenta, con Vallee reacentuando lo físico y Jerome Clark renunciando a sus especulaciones de The Unidentified.

«“Best” in this case came with reservations. An awareness of complexity and strangeness, of interactions with psychology and social processes, replaced the simplistic science-fiction image with a sense that any alien presence was more subtle, more deeply entangled with human history than heretofore imagined.» — el matiz que pone a ese regreso: la imagen simplona de la ciencia ficción quedó sustituida por una presencia más sutil y más enredada con la historia humana.

«A quality of paradox has marked the last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. An alien invasion swept through modern culture even as news coverage of sightings dwindled, UFOs thrived in popular acceptance yet organized ufology fell on hard times, the Internet democratized UFO communication but undercut rational study, and UFO politics replaced scientific, evidence-based inquiry as the center of attention.» — la paradoja de las dos décadas siguientes, en cuatro pares: cultura contra noticias, aceptación contra organización, internet contra estudio racional, política contra evidencia.

«Most people still say they have heard or read about UFOs, though percentages declined to 87 percent in 1996, as opposed to 96 percent in 1966 and 95 percent in 1973. Nearly half the samples believe UFOs are real, 47 percent in 1990 and 48 percent in 1996, down slightly from a peak of 57 percent in 1978. On the other hand, believers that extraterrestrials have visited some time in the past have increased from 27 percent to 33 percent between 1990 and 2001, while percentages of people who think they have seen a UFO hold almost steady at 14 percent in 1990 and 12 percent in 1996, higher than at any time in the history of these polls. Asked in 1996 if they think the government knows more than it tells about UFOs, a whopping 71 percent of respondents said yes.» — las cifras de las Gallup de 1990, 1996 y 2001, con la erosión del interés por el fenómeno físico y el setenta y uno por ciento que cree que el gobierno sabe más de lo que dice.

«Opinion polls tell only a bare-bones story of a decade when UFOs shed much of their folk status to shine with pop-culture glitter. Helped by the fiftieth anniversary of Kenneth Arnold and Roswell in 1997, boosted by media promotion of the end of the millennium as an occasion of paranormal significance, UFOs became newsworthy even in the absence of immediate UFO activity.» — cómo se volvió noticiable el tema sin actividad que lo respaldara: los cincuenta años de Arnold y de Roswell, y el fin del milenio.

«Movie versions of the Walton and Strieber abductions and a T'V miniseries based on Intruders introduced important UFO stories to anyone still unfamiliar with them.’ Steven Spielberg created the miniseries Taken for the SciFi Channel in 2002 with a dramatized retelling of UFO history from World War II to the present, full of Roswell, evil government, and hybrid children. The Mothman Prophecies (2001) created a creepy cinematic version of John Keel’s book, while filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan burst the New Age bubble on crop circles in Signs (2002), where they spelled out the message that a hostile alien invasion was coming.» — el inventario de cine y televisión: Taken de Spielberg, The Mothman Prophecies y los círculos de cultivo de Signs, que reventó la burbuja New Age.

«Countless TV documentaries and late-night radio programs have enabled the curious to tune in a UFO discussion any night of the week. Respected TV journalist Larry King interviewed ufologists with Area 51 as a backdrop; ABC News anchor Peter Jennings hosted an often favorable documentary, UFOs—Seeing Is Believing, in 2005; and Web sites concerned with UFOs have multiplied into the tens of thousands.» — la disponibilidad permanente del tema en radio nocturna, documentales y decenas de miles de sitios.

«UFO books surfeited the market in the late 1990s as publishers rushed to cash in on the fashionableness of UFOs. Many of the efforts were derivative and slipshod, but such works as Jerome Clark’s The UFO Encyclopedia (1998) and Richard Hall’s The UFO Evidence II (2001) set the gold standard for quality scholarship.» — y dentro de esa saturación editorial señala las dos obras que le parecen patrón de calidad: la enciclopedia de Clark y The UFO Evidence II de Hall.

«The X-Files TV series captivated audiences with a phrase that has entered both public and ufological common currency—“The truth is out there.” The truth remains elusive, but the idea of UFOs flourishes as a cultural reality.» — la frase de The X-Files como moneda corriente, y su fórmula: la verdad sigue esquiva y la idea prospera como realidad cultural.

«Two years later a study of outstanding cases by French scientists and military officers attempted to assess defense implications of UFOs. This COMETA (Comité d'Etudes Approfondies) group concluded that UFOs were likely vehicles under intelligent extraterrestrial control, and the semiofficial status of the group meant that they spoke at least informally for the French government.» — el informe COMETA, con su conclusión de vehículos bajo control extraterrestre y su estatus semioficial.

«The formation of standing groups of experts, like the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), the Sign Historical Group, and Budd Hopkins’s Intruders Foundation, reflected an ongoing commitment to explore the scientific potential of UFOs,» — los grupos permanentes que cita como signo de compromiso científico: NARCAP, NIDS, el Sign Historical Group y la Intruders Foundation de Hopkins.

«In contrast to the rosy cultural complexion of the subject, the current state of organized ufology looks wan and haggard. The major U.S. and British organizations saw a steady membership decline in the 1990s, first as glossy newsstand magazines and then later the Internet usurped the informative role once exclusive to these groups. Paying members stopped paying and helped themselves to the rich, if not always nutritious diet of alternative sources while organizations starved in the midst of plenty.» — el contraste que le importa: la cultura floreciente y la ufología organizada en decadencia, con los socios yéndose a las revistas y luego a internet.

«The current robust state of disorganized ufology owes much to the Internet, with its instant gratification and a chance to monitor news, developments, rumors, and opinions on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour basis. Quality Web sites often remain known only to veterans, while the uninitiated find themselves awash in sites that borrow content from elsewhere, errors and all, or retail personal opinion with little regard for objectivity.» — lo que internet dio y lo que quitó: gratificación instantánea, y sitios que copian el error ajeno o venden opinión personal.

«New research initiatives perpetuated an assumption that the business of ufology was to take a scientific approach to a scientific problem, but in the wake of Roswell a departure from this long-dominant model rewrote the ufological master narrative into a political thriller.» — la reescritura del relato maestro de la ufología: de problema científico a thriller político.

«Many people interested in UFOs now listen to the insider and whistleblower rather than to the eyewitness and experiencer as the most valuable sources. Meanwhile, the ufological quest has transformed from a question for science to answer into a prize to pty loose from its jealous governmental guardians.» — el cambio de fuente autorizada: del testigo y el experienciador al insider y al delator.

«Release of the MJ-12 papers in 1987 whipped up a frenzy of dark-side beliefs that would dominate ufology for several years. An intelligence agent told William Moore that extraterrestrials had manipulated human DNA over thousands of years and military efforts were under way to back-engineer a spacecraft from extraterrestrial models. This latter claim received confirmation from Robert Lazar, who enjoyed a brief period of celebrity with vivid accounts of his work with alien technology at Area 51, though his credentials as a physicist proved as elusive as his alien hardware.» — el frenesí del lado oscuro tras los papeles MJ-12, con la ingeniería inversa y las credenciales de Robert Lazar tan esquivas como su tecnología.

«Especially influential was a statement issued in December 1987 by pilot and former CIA operative John Lear. Shadowy informants spun a story to him about multiple UFO crashes and government attempts to fly captured UFOs in 1962. The sites for these experiments included Area 51 in Nevada and an underground facility near Dulce, New Mexico.» — la declaración de John Lear de diciembre de 1987, con los choques múltiples y las instalaciones del Área 51 y de Dulce.

«Later in the 1960s an agency so secret even the president was not privy to its actions made a treaty with the aliens to exchange technology for a limited abduction program. ‘The aliens soon reneged on their part of the bargain, withholding technological information while kidnapping thousands of people, implanting them with control devices, using humans for food, and creating an android race by genetic manipulation.» — el tratado secreto de la versión Lear: tecnología a cambio de un programa limitado de abducciones, que los alienígenas habrían incumplido.

«After attempts to stop the aliens by military force met with disaster, these informants said, President Reagan initiated the Star Wars program, not to defend against Soviet missiles but to develop advanced weapons that could expel the aliens from their underground hideaways.» — y el remate de esa versión: el programa Star Wars de Reagan como arma contra los alienígenas, no contra los misiles soviéticos.

«The surreal world of dark-side visions crumbled in 1989, but their followers, left sadder but little wiser, have reassembled some of the same scenarios piece by piece.!” A conviction remains unshaken that the government holds one or more crashed UFOs and that the secrecy surrounding them is deep and dark.» — fecha el derrumbe de las visiones del lado oscuro y la persistencia de su núcleo: el gobierno tiene naves y el secreto es hondo.

«A saucer in hand holds more consequences than a saucer in the sky. If the government recovered a disk in 1947, the implications seem inescapable that UFOs were never unknowns but tangible proof of alien visitation and left authorities with reduced incentive to investigate mere sightings. Those in the know must have adapted their thinking to an alien presence, and every act of government, every course of scientific inquiry from the moment of recovery onward adjusted to this reality:» — la lógica de esa premisa, dicha en una frase: un platillo en mano pesa más que un platillo en el cielo.

«The blissful ignorance of the public regarding these stupendous events meant that powerful and undemocratic organizations manipulated information from the shadows and kept the truth about UFOs a secret. This reasoning flows smoothly from the Roswell premise and reinterprets government actions in a way that reinforces the same premise.» — y señala el circuito del razonamiento: fluye de la premisa de Roswell y reinterpreta al gobierno de modo que la refuerza.

«Roswell has become a baseline truth in much of the UFO literature over the past two decades, and the widely read books of such writers as Timothy Good, Nick Redfern, Jim Marrs, and Richard M. Dolan cast the history of the second half of the twentieth century as an aftereffect of that event.» — los autores que hacen de Roswell verdad de base: Timothy Good, Nick Redfern, Jim Marrs y Richard M. Dolan.

«Dolan rose to the status of favored historian in the field with publication of UFOs and the National Security State, 1941-1973 in 2000. In this 500-page book he amasses an abundance of cases to demonstrate military interest in UFOs as well as apparent UFO interest in sensitive sites like defense installations and nuclear facilities.» — sitúa UFOs and the National Security State, de 2000, y lo que Dolan acumula en sus quinientas páginas.

«He emphasizes that the importance of the reports carries over to an earthly issue, the growth of an “invisible government” that went hand in hand with management of UFO information. A world-changing secret stayed hidden to prevent panic and social breakdown, or to protect corporate profits and the status quo, by means of black budgets, disinformation, and control of the media.» — la tesis terrestre de Dolan: un gobierno invisible sostenido por presupuestos negros, desinformación y control de los medios.

«UFOs brought visits by multiple alien races, crashed saucers, recovered technology, and a relationship between earthly powers and the aliens, but these secrets represent only part of the whole. The full secret encompasses behind-the-scenes social changes as a transnational elite replaced democratic states, and an understanding of UFOs provides a key to how this power elite controls the world.» — y su tesis mayor: el secreto pleno abarca el reemplazo de los Estados democráticos por una élite transnacional.

«Such an argument takes for granted that UFOs have had a profound effect on human history but at the same time demotes them from the stars of their own show to bit players in a larger drama.» — la observación que le hace: ese argumento da por sentado el efecto histórico del ovni y a la vez lo degrada a papel secundario.

«One pillar of evidence to support this unconventional history comes from the accumulating documents recovered by FOIA requests. Perhaps the largest public archive of these findings is The Black Vault, a Web site founded in 1996 by researcher John Greenewald Jr. when he was a high-school student. Among the thousands of pages he has collected from military and intelligence agencies, he finds confirmation that the CIA, NSA, and others maintain interest in a subject that is supposed to hold no defense or scientific significance, as well as clues that secretive government projects draw on exotic technology related to UFOs.» — el archivo The Black Vault de John Greenewald Jr., fundado en 1996 cuando era estudiante de preparatoria, y lo que él dice encontrar allí.

«This ufological revision depicts an unfamiliar world where alien contact and a secret government determine the real course of history while the public goes about life as usual in complacent ignorance. A sharper contrast between apparent reality and genuine reality could hardly be imagined, yet the Dolan version is far more conservative than the assertions of informants bearing even more staggering secrets.» — y mide esa revisión contra otras: la de Dolan resulta la conservadora frente a informantes con secretos más pasmosos.

«Just in time for the fiftieth’anniversary Roswell celebration, a retired Army colonel, Philip J. Corso, declared in The Day after Roswell (1997) that he assumed leadership of a secret research and development project in 1961 to carry out reverse engineering on the wreckage. From this work came lasers, integrated circuits, image intensifiers, fiber optics, particle beams, and Kevlar bullet-proof material. In fact, most of the technological advances since 1947 began with aliens, according to Corso, and many of those developments transferred from his research group to industry.» — el caso de Philip J. Corso y The Day after Roswell, con el láser, el circuito integrado y la fibra óptica atribuidos a la ingeniería inversa.

«Corso lent a face to his story, but nameless shadows serve as sources for many exotic claims. One example that pumped up excitement on the Internet in 2005-2006 was Project Serpo, a repetition of earlier claims that an alien survived the Roswell crash and cooperative contacts between the government and the aliens followed, but with the new wrinkle that military personnel returned with the aliens to their home planet Serpo. The movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind embeds information leaked about this project, according to Mr. Anonymous, though most members abide by security oaths taken years ago.» — el Project Serpo de 2005 y 2006, con el viaje al planeta de origen y la película de Spielberg como filtración cifrada.

«symposium in Pensacola with Walters and the local sightings as central attractions, but in a field where strident controversy is the norm, Gulf Breeze pumped up the volume to exceptional levels during its few years on the UFO scene.» — cierra el episodio de Gulf Breeze midiendo su efecto: subió el volumen de la controversia en un campo donde ya era la norma.

«In 1997 Laurance Rockefeller sponsored a conference for ufologists to present radar, photographic, and other “hard” evidence to a party of skeptical scientists.» — la conferencia patrocinada por Laurance Rockefeller en 1997, para presentar evidencia dura a científicos escépticos.

«panelists saw insufficient reason to accept UFOs as extraterrestrial machines but acknowledged that the reports did not resolve readily into familiar categories and that scientific knowledge stood to gain from further investigation.» — el dictamen matizado de ese panel: no bastaba para aceptar máquinas extraterrestres, y los reportes no se acomodaban a categorías conocidas.

«The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense sponsored a UFO study between 1996 and 2000, and the secret document of nearly five hundred pages became public in 2006. Project Condign concluded that unidentified aerial phenomena over UK airspace held no defense significance and accounted for sightings as military» — el Project Condign británico, hecho entre 1996 y 2000 y publicado en 2006: sin significado defensivo para el espacio aéreo del Reino Unido.

«black projects’ and atmospheric plasmas, but the author accepted a physical basis for reports and acknowledged that the causes were sufficiently unknown to warrant further study.» — y su otra mitad: el autor aceptó una base física para los reportes y pidió más estudio.

«The book amalgamated so many UFO-related claims and rumors that Roswell investigator Karl Pflock dubbed it “a veritable unified field theory of practically everything ufological and ufoological;» — la recepción del libro de Corso, con el juicio del investigador de Roswell Karl Pflock citado dentro.

«but despite its errors and implausible claims, despite its round condemnation as a hoax by serious UFO researchers, Corso’ tale has settled into the literature to be cited and quoted again and again as undisputed gospel.» — y su destino pese a esa condena: instalado en la literatura y citado como evangelio.

«Even stranger is the evidence from remote viewers, psychics trained by intelligence agencies to visualize distant scenes.» — la evidencia de los visores remotos, psíquicos entrenados por agencias de inteligencia.

«view other planets in stories that combine exotic government projects with confirmation of standard notions like multiple alien races and future catastrophes on earth.» — lo que esos visores reportan: proyectos exóticos combinados con las nociones ya establecidas de razas múltiples y catástrofes por venir.

«A vigorous synthesis of UFO-related ideas and assimilation of new associations have continued with unabated fervor ever since the dark-side era. While abduction researchers debate whether the aliens are helpful or exploitative, anonymous informants, mysterious documents, and remote viewers repeat stories of treaties allowing aliens to abduct humans and refugees from a dying planet attempting to settle on the earth, with hybridization the favorite method and cattle mutilations part of a gruesome plan to modify earthly DNA for alien purposes.» — Bullard describe la síntesis posterior al lado oscuro: tratados que permiten abducir, refugiados de un planeta moribundo, hibridación y mutilaciones como modificación del ADN terrestre.

«Messages to abductees that a cataclysm or time of tribulation is near have raised questions of whether the aliens mean to warn or to deceive, while discussions of crop circles have treated them as goodwill tokens or alien-to-alien communications.’ Though apocalyptic preoccupations have cooled since the turn of the millennium, a supposed prophecy associated with the year 2012 in the Mayan calendar has emerged as a new focus of speculations about UFOs and the end of the world.» — las dos lecturas del mensaje catastrofista, sin arbitrar, y el nuevo foco: la profecía de 2012 atribuida al calendario maya.

«When John Lear returned to the UFO scene in 2003, he asserted that President Eisenhower had ordered “In God We Trust” added to coins and paper currency to reaffirm faith after the aliens declared God did not exist; that Americans and Soviets faked the cold war to distract public attention from the alien presence; and that Venus is an earthlike and inhabited planet but portrayed as hellishly hot and lifeless to lead the public astray.» — las afirmaciones de John Lear en 2003: el lema In God We Trust ordenado por Eisenhower tras la negación divina alienígena, la guerra fría fingida y Venus habitable.

«Aliens have dominated the speculations of ufologists, and the alien idea has served as an imperialistic principle throughout the history of ufology, absorbing assorted mysteries and taking over various events until UFOs become an all-purpose answer to every question.» — la fórmula con que describe la expansión de la idea alienígena: principio imperialista que absorbe misterios ajenos hasta volverse respuesta universal.

«Some recent proposals have challenged this UFO-centric preeminence and subordinated UFOs to other people's agendas. UFO sightings, especially the ones involving big triangular objects, are really secret aircraft like the Blackbird or Aurora undergoing tests, according to some theorists, though these ideas sometimes take another turn to become products of alien technology recovered from Roswell and developed at Area 51.» — la corriente que subordina el ovni a agendas ajenas: triángulos leídos como Blackbird o Aurora, con el giro que los devuelve a la tecnología de Roswell.

«The claims that military personnel participate in abductions finds one explanation in the deceptive illusions of aliens, another in a notion that the military kidnaps abductees to find out what they learn from the aliens, while a third answer replaces aliens altogether to designate these experiences as MILABs, or mili57 A new tary abductions, with mind-control experimentation as their real purpose.» — las tres explicaciones para la presencia militar en las abducciones, incluida la que suprime al alienígena: los MILAB, con el control mental por objetivo.

«These developments represent only a fraction of the ideas currently found on Web sites and in the literature—there are not enough hours in the day to keep up with all of them. Few people appear to accept any one or another of the more exotic proposals, and they do not count as the consensus opinion of the field, What they attest to is the profuseness of speculations and rapid circulation of rumors with little check or critical review, as well as a general readiness to credit an abundance of rumors as reason enough to believe that some of them must be true.» — cómo mide todo ese material: pocos aceptan cada propuesta, y lo que atestiguan es la profusión de rumores sin revisión crítica.

«A consistent collective drift becomes apparent in these claims: The quantity as well as the content of UFO discussions reflects a change of direction from the days of McDonald and Hynek, when the science of UFOs was central, toward an unmistakable preoccupation with political activism as the way to solve the UFO mystery. This reorientation is implicit in the importance afforded government secrecy in current ufological thinking, explicit in the aims and actions of perhaps the most vociferous branch of ufology today, the disclosure and exopolitics movement.» — el desplazamiento que sí ve consistente: de la ciencia del ovni de McDonald y Hynek al activismo político como vía de solución.

«In 1993 a physician, Steven M. Greer, began to gather testimonies of military and government officials who had witnessed UFO activity or cover-ups. His aim was a humanized assault on UFO secrecy, and the first strike came in 1997 when some of these witnesses met in Washington to brief congressional and Pentagon officials in an attempt to force congressional hearings.» — la campaña de Steven M. Greer desde 1993 y la sesión informativa de 1997 en Washington.

«Stephen Bassett, a business consultant turned lobbyist for UFO disclosure, founded. the Paradigm Research Group in 1996 and the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee in 1999, then sponsored a press conference in 2001 with some seventy-five witnesses and nearly annual “X-Conferences” since 2004 to keep up pressure on Congress. He ran unsuccessfully for a Maryland congressional seat in 2002 on a platform of disclosure but has continued to seek political attention through questions to presidential candidates in the 2008 primaries and thousands of faxes to the new Obama administration.» — la trayectoria de Stephen Bassett: Paradigm Research Group, comité de acción política, X-Conferences y candidatura fallida en Maryland.

«Exopolitics goes arm in arm with disclosure as its theoretical background and ultimate goal. Lawyer and futurist Alfred Lambremont Webre and professor of international affairs Michael E. Salla contend that aliens have visited the earth throughout history, but clandestine, increasingly powerful organizations use disinformation, intimidation, and ridicule to hide the truth while they exploit ancient, recovered, or shared alien technology. A planetary quarantine, perhaps the result of some violation of cosmic law in ancient times, is responsible for lack of open contact, and the task for exopolitical awareness is to accept the larger context of the earth, reform the unacceptable conditions like war and poverty that sustain the quarantine, and reconnect with other civilizations in the universe.» — la exopolítica según Alfred Lambremont Webre y Michael E. Salla: visitas a lo largo de la historia, ocultamiento, y una cuarentena planetaria por violación de ley cósmica.

«The disclosure/exopolitics movement assumes that the alien presence is incontrovertible and a secret government hides the truth. Solidifying these hypotheses into facts replaces hesitancy with direction and purpose as the struggle becomes a conflict between good and evil, the right of free citizens to know the most monumental truth of the ages versus paternalistic authorities that withhold the secret to serve their selfish purposes.» — lo que el movimiento da por sentado, y el efecto de darlo por sentado: la lucha se vuelve conflicto entre el bien y el mal.

«A sense of hope surrounds the movement as Greer sees disclosure as the beginning of an era when alien technology relieves the energy crisis and reverses global warming.» — el lado esperanzado del movimiento: para Greer la divulgación abre una era en que la tecnología alienígena resuelve la crisis energética.

«Bassett recognizes the enormity of the “Secret Empire,’ with its black budgets, media puppets, and undemocratic power, but has confidence that a grassroots effort can force out the truth as well as restore the constitutional republic that Americans have lost.» — la versión de Bassett: un Imperio Secreto con presupuestos negros y medios títere, y la confianza en que un esfuerzo de base puede forzarlo.

«These few words sum up a fashionable conviction that UFOs suffer from lack of openness rathe» — y lee el lema de Bassett como resumen de una convicción de época: al ovni le falta apertura, no evidencia.

«At its best the disclosure program can etch sharp impressions even outside ufological circles. On November 12, 2007, documentary producer James Fox and journalist Leslie Kean sponsored a press conference in Washington to call for UFO investigation. The fourteen witnesses included a former governor of Arizona and a retired Iranian general who, as a pilot in 1976, attempted to intercept a UFO over Tehran. These participants presented responsible testimony and received a respectful hearing.» — el mejor momento del programa de divulgación: la conferencia de prensa de noviembre de 2007 con James Fox y Leslie Kean, y catorce testigos oídos con respeto.

«When other gatherings undercut their own credibility by mixing dubious claims with sound testimony, the press responded with laughter. Even noteworthy supporters have proved disappointing—for example, Paul Hellyer, who served as Canadian defense minister and deputy prime minister but whose UFO opinions derived from reading Colonel Corsos book rather than from official knowledge.» — y el reverso: reuniones que mezclan lo dudoso con lo sólido, y el caso de Paul Hellyer, cuya opinión venía del libro de Corso y no de conocimiento oficial.

«Ample evidence attests to censorship, stonewalling, and lies from various agencies about UFOs, but some highly visible figures in ufology take a giant step beyond established fact when they speak of a vast and sinister secret government as proven truth or alien visitation as the key to every facet of modern history.» — reparte de nuevo: hay evidencia amplia de censura y mentira, y de ahí a un gobierno secreto probado hay un paso que él no da.

«Demanding so much and demonstrating so little, the current strategy of persuasion largely fails to convince anyone not already convinced.» — y su juicio sobre la estrategia de persuasión: no convence a quien no venía convencido.

«UFOs have continued to mark the sky with their mysterious hieroglyphs even at a time when magazine articles, books, and conventions have favored human treatments of UFOs over observations. Peter Davenport has directed the National UFO Reporting Center since 1994, and it is probably the best-known clearinghouse for sightings, with a Web form available for anyone to submit a report. His posted totals from 2002 to 2007 average about 4,000 reports a year— impressive numbers in themselves but even more striking when compared with Project Blue Book figures of only 1,501 reports during the great wave of 1952 or 1,060 in 1966.» — las cifras del National UFO Reporting Center de Peter Davenport frente a las de Blue Book, con unos cuatro mil reportes anuales.

«Newspaper coverage of UFOs diminished during the 1990s, but people still see UFOs and report them under the right circumstances, with the success of Davenport's Web site a testimony that the Internet has reoriented behavior.» — lee el éxito del formulario web como prueba de que internet reorientó la conducta de reportar.

«On March 8, 1994, police and several dozen other witnesses watched lights in the sky over Holland, Michigan, between 9:15 and 11:00 p.m. National Weather Service radar also tracked several objects of enormous apparent size for twenty to thirty minutes.» — el caso de Holland, Michigan, del 8 de marzo de 1994, con radar del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.

«A similar formation or formations of red-orange lights attracted many witnesses over Carteret, New Jersey, and Staten Island about midnight on July 14-15, 2001, in an area where heavy population and commercial air traffic made usage of flares irresponsible.’ UFOs again favored heavily populated areas on August 21 and October 31, 2004, when hundreds of witnesses in the Chicago suburbs of Tinley Park and Orland Park watched the passage of multiple lights on an apparent triangular object, the events recorded in numerous photographs and videos.» — los casos de Carteret y Staten Island de 2001 y los de Tinley Park y Orland Park de 2004, con cientos de testigos y registro fotográfico.

«The crowded skies hosted a surprise on the afternoon of August 9, 1997, when a white cylindrical object flew past a Swissair jetliner on a near-collision course as the plane flew out from New York. The FAA explained the object as a weather balloon, though the pilot denied this answer and no known weather balloon was in the area.» — el objeto cilíndrico que pasó junto a un avión de Swissair en agosto de 1997, y el globo meteorológico que el piloto no aceptó.

«A report from Siberia on January 26, 2001, claimed that a UFO hovered over an airport for ninety minutes. One air crew refused to take off and a second diverted to another landing field while the UFO was present.» — el reporte siberiano de enero de 2001, con una tripulación que se negó a despegar.

«An impressive report for any decade began at 4 a.M. on January 5, 2000, when a man in Highland, Illinois, spotted a bright star moving toward him. As it neared he saw that the light was attached to a rectangular object he described as the size of a football field, with two rows of windows along the side and red lights on the bottom.» — el caso de Highland, Illinois, del 5 de enero de 2000, con el objeto rectangular del tamaño de un campo de futbol.

«The witness notified the Highland police, and an officer in the nearby town of Lebanon heard the dispatch around 4:15 a.m. The Lebanon officer soon sighted the UFO, a massive triangular object with a large white light at each corner, silent and blotting out the stars as it passed. He watched the object change direction as if it pivoted in mid-air, and he saw a band of light across the rear of the craft.» — la cadena de avistamientos policiales que siguió, con el oficial de Lebanon y el objeto triangular que giraba en el aire.

«Eight miles to the southwest, an officer in the town of Shiloh spotted the object just after it left Lebanon. He described it as arrowhead-shaped, with three bright lights and red and green lights along the back side. At 4:29 an officer-in Millstadt reported a triangular object with three bright lights and a luminous rear side. He photographed the object with a Polaroid camera, but the morning cold hampered his efforts, and he obtained only one photo of poor quality before the object flew out of sight.» — los oficiales de Shiloh y Millstadt, con la única foto Polaroid de mala calidad que se obtuvo.

«The crew of a Mexican Air Force plane on drug surveillance patrol picked up radar returns on the afternoon of March 5, 2004. Nothing was visible to the naked eye, but the excited crewmen watched as their infrared equipment recorded formations of bright objects flying in and out of the clouds.» — el caso de la Fuerza Aérea Mexicana del 5 de marzo de 2004, con equipo infrarrojo y nada visible a simple vista.

«The spectacular videos made international news, and physicist Bruce Maccabee analyzed the footage at the behest of the Mexican government, presenting his preliminary findings at the 2004 MUFON Symposium in Denver. He found that the “object” sightings aligned with offshore oil fields where flares burning off natural gas could provide intense infrared sources, while the appearance of moving objects was the “racing moon’ illusion, with the stationary infrared sources appearing to speed through the intervening clouds because of the motion of the aircraft. The radar contacts might have detected nothing more mysterious than a truck on the highway.'” In this case the UFO turned out to be conventional.» — el análisis de Bruce Maccabee para el gobierno mexicano: bengalas de quema de gas en campos petroleros y la ilusión de la luna que corre; y el remate, que este caso sí resultó convencional.

«A year after the O’Hare UFO, media attention converged on Stephenville, Texas, after some fifty people reported a huge, silent triangular object with multiple lights and flying sometimes at high speed, sometimes slowly, on the night of January 8, 2008. Several witnesses reported that fighter jets chased the object.» — el caso de Stephenville, Texas, del 8 de enero de 2008, con unas cincuenta personas y cazas persiguiendo el objeto.

«What followed was a pattern as familiar as a worn-out comedy routine when the Air Force first denied that any military aircraft were active in the area, then reversed themselves and explained the sightings as the result of ten F-16s on a training mission, despite the fact that this training would bring the aircraft perilously close to the closed airspace around President Bush's ranch at Crawford.» — y el patrón que le sigue, dicho con su comparación: la Fuerza Aérea niega, se desdice y explica con diez F-16 en entrenamiento cerca del rancho presidencial.

«Adding further to ufologists’ suspicions was the sudden firing of Angelina Joiner, a reporter for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune who first reported the sightings in the area. She lost her job for the alleged reason that she actually did her job, covering a real news story to the offense of prominent people who did not like the international publicity their town was receiving and pressured the editor to terminate her.» — el despido de la reportera Angelina Joiner del Stephenville Empire-Tribune, y la razón que Bullard consigna: hacer su trabajo.

«The history of sixty-plus years of UFOs is the biography of a living, evolving system of ideas with a growing stock of motifs, plots, characters, and themes.» — define lo que ha venido narrando: la biografía de un sistema de ideas vivo, con su acervo creciente de motivos, tramas, personajes y temas.

«Several researchers have explained unusual numbers of airplane crashes during the 1950s as the result of hostile UFO activity, probably in response to military aircraft opening fire on UFOs.» — otro enlace del mismo tejido: los accidentes aéreos de los cincuenta atribuidos a actividad ovni hostil.

«government agents carried out the attacks using demolition explosives have circulated widely, and some of the same conspiracy theorists who assert that the government hides the truth about UFOs also propose that attacks staged to look like the work of terrorists now provide a pretext to undermine civil liberties and further establish the New World Order.» — y el 11 de septiembre leído por los mismos teóricos como operación de bandera falsa para el Nuevo Orden Mundial.

«The prevailing ufological explanation builds an imposing edifice from such shaky materials as inference, speculation, hearsay, and questionable» — su objeción de método al edificio ufológico: inferencia, especulación, rumor y evidencia cuestionable por materiales.

«evidence, held together by one supposition supporting another. The structure stands if most of the parts are true, but falls flat if too many parts are false.» — y la fragilidad que de ahí se sigue: la estructura se sostiene si casi todas las partes son verdaderas.

«A V-shaped formation of lights passed over Phoenix, Arizona, on the night of March 13, 1997, and a second formation appeared two hours» — las Luces de Phoenix del 13 de marzo de 1997, en dos pasos separados por dos horas.

«Distant flares used in military maneuvers may have been responsible for the second observations, but witnesses to the first passage, including then-governor Fife Symington III, insist that the “Phoenix Lights” belonged to a large dark object that blotted out the stars.» — y el reparto entre los dos: bengalas para el segundo, y para el primero un objeto oscuro que tapaba las estrellas según el gobernador Fife Symington III.

«Local Air Force radar was not operating at the time, but the air base reported no military traffic. The fact that Venus was at its brightest raises suspicions that the planet teamed with imagination to create another spectacular but erroneous UFO,» — la sospecha que él mismo levanta sobre el caso de Highland: Venus en su punto más brillante.

«Venus did not clear the horizon until just after 4 a.m. and remained too low to explain the sightings. The photograph also showed that the object was not a point source but multiple lights extended in space.» — y las dos razones por las que la descarta: Venus salió tarde y demasiado bajo, y la foto muestra luces múltiples, no una fuente puntual.

«twist on Roswell purges it of aliens to allege that an experimental atomic-powered aircraft crashed and the supposed aliens were Asian former POWs of the Japanese, deformed by germ-warfare experiments and then victimized again to test how the human body withstood radiation. The source of these charges is the usual crop of secretive informants,» — la revisión que saca a los alienígenas de Roswell y pone en su lugar a prisioneros asiáticos deformados por experimentos de guerra bacteriológica; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«Something mysterious is flying around in the sky. Thousands of people have observed disks, triangles, or other shapes flying at extraordinary speeds and performing impossible maneuvers. UFOs sometimes leave traces on the ground or have effects on humans, animals, and machinery. The ability of radar to track these objects or a camera to record them further attests to a physical presence.» — Bullard abre su lista de motivos por el más elemental: algo misterioso vuela, deja rastros y queda en radar y cámara.

«UFOs are extraordinary aircraft and probably extraterrestrial spaceships. They appear mechanical yet exhibit shapes and performances that rule out earthly origin, leading to widespread supposition that UFOs are the craft of superior alien visitors. In some descriptions UFOs behave more like ghosts than machines, and magical alien technology is the usual explanation, though an alternative theory attributes the strangeness of UFOs to some sort of paranormal manifestation. The skeptical perspective reduces all UFOs to conventional terms, with misidentifications, errors, and hoaxes sufficient to explain all reports.» — segundo motivo, con sus tres ramas puestas juntas y sin arbitrar: nave alienígena, manifestación paranormal y reducción escéptica.

«Humanoid occupants man the craft. Recurrent reports of iconic humanoids with short stature, large heads, and elongated eyes further confirm an unearthly origin for UFOs, though the occupants may also appear human, reptilian, insectlike, robotic, or monstrous.» — tercer motivo, el ocupante humanoide icónico, con las variantes que también se reportan.

«The UFO occupants intend help or harm to humans. Early notions that aliens came to earth as explorers or invaders have given way to more nuanced scenarios, The contactees described Space Brothers coming to rescue humanity from nuclear war; later claims indicate that the aliens may heal humans or lead them toward an expanded consciousness that will save mankind from ecological catastrophe and the evils of materialism. Many abductees describe an exploitative relationship as the aliens create a hybrid stock to serve their own purposes and treat humans as mere guinea pigs. An underlying implication is that danger threatens the earth, and heavenly outsiders serve as either the cause or the solution of this planetary crisis.» — quinto motivo, la intención del ocupante, con las dos lecturas coexistiendo: salvadores del cielo y explotadores de un banco genético.

«UFOs sometimes crash. The ultimate physical evidence for UFOs is the wreckage from accidents such as the one supposed to have occurred at Roswell in 1947. According to this story military authorities collected the wreckage and learned about alien visitation from an early date.» — sexto motivo, el choque y la recuperación de restos, con Roswell por caso central.

«The history of the world since 1947 is in fact a hidden UFO history. In this view the government has held the public in ignorance of treaties and interactions with aliens, while most modern technology derives from captured alien models. The real power structure on earth is a totalitarian, international cabal working with the aliens or using their technology to dominate the world.» — séptimo motivo, la historia oculta: tratados, tecnología derivada y una camarilla internacional al mando.

«UFOs have visited the earth for millennia and have taken part in the development of mankind. Ancient astronauts brought the seeds of civilization, either as benevolent teachers or as masters using humans as slaves. The aliens leave traces of their presence in the monuments and literature of the ancient past and in artifacts on Mars and the moon.» — octavo motivo, los antiguos astronautas, con las dos versiones: maestros benevolentes o amos esclavistas.

«Many mysterious events have their origin in alien activity. Rather than just flying around, alien visitors interfere in earthly affairs and are responsible for Men in Black, cattle mutilations, crop circles, power blackouts, and the disappearance of ships and airplanes. Or, considered another way, UFOs are simply one manifestation of a larger field of paranormal occurrences that have always mystified humanity.» — noveno motivo, el ovni como causa de todo lo demás, o al revés, como una manifestación más de lo paranormal.

«Part a matter of observation and experience, part theory and speculation, part inference and association, the cultural understanding of UFOs builds up a vigorous story from these constituent motifs, plots, and themes. The list is not exhaustive, neither does it do justice to the ready blending of the themes nor the eclectic syncretism of external ideas into the UFO framework, but it touches on the most prominent elements.» — declara los límites de su propia lista: ni exhaustiva ni justa con la mezcla de temas y el sincretismo del marco.

«Taken together they comprise the UFO myth, a popular image of what these objects are and how they relate to the human world. The extent and popularity of the stories attest to their appeal and apparent psychological function.» — y lo que la lista compone: el mito ovni, una imagen popular cuya extensión atestigua su función psicológica.

«The thematic affinities of UFO stories with older traditions like otherworld visitation and fantastic others or apocalypse and salvation reestablish age-old notions, but give them a chance to shake off the dust of ages and return in the shiny chrome of futuristic technology, the guise updated but the underlying form intact.» — la fórmula con que enlaza el mito nuevo con el viejo: la forma intacta bajo el cromo futurista.

«This resulting image may be true or false but most likely blends fact and fiction into a distorted, misleading whole that nevertheless has some basis in reality.» — y el juicio con que cierra el capítulo, con su matiz: mezcla de hecho y ficción, y con alguna base en la realidad.

«Kenneth Arnold discovered flying saucers, but the first UFO did not suddenly swoop down out of the blue one summer day in 1947. Witnesses before him had watched mysterious objects in the sky for thousands of years, objects as provocative of wonder, speculation, and dread as UFOs today, though not necessarily the circular, metallic aircraft of modern times.» — abre el capítulo tercero separando el descubrimiento del platillo de la antigüedad del objeto.

«Historical UFOs refer to whatever sightings people have considered strange. These historical reports lend a valuable comparative dimension, a perspective to demonstrate that, whether yesterday or yesteryear, ideas about what UFOs are supposed to be intervene between the observation and the report. The results set a straightforward example that expectations lay a heavy hand on UFO narratives and mask any observational reality with a mythic visage.» — define qué llama ovni histórico, y para qué le sirve: mostrar que la idea de lo que un ovni debe ser se mete entre la observación y el reporte.

«The earliest understanding attributed them to supernatural intervention, either messages from the gods or glimpses of a parallel otherworld. With the advent of a scientific worldview in the eighteenth century, an unusual manifestation of standard natural events became the prevailing solution for anomalies. A third conceptual berth opened as the potential for human flight evolved during the nineteenth century, when expectation for things extraordinary in the sky shifted to man-made flying machines or extraterrestrial spaceships.» — los tres marcos explicativos que ordenan el capítulo: intervención sobrenatural, anomalía natural y máquina voladora o nave del espacio.

«Along with the explanation go distinctive patterns of content and associations to underscore the considerable, often sobering debt that observation owes to the human factor in reports of experience.» — y su tesis sobre esos marcos: con cada explicación vienen contenidos y asociaciones propios, que miden la deuda de la observación con el factor humano.

«When the gods phoned, they seldom made small talk. Prodigious events foretold important, often catastrophic happenings or lodged a complaint; but if the message inspired fear, it was not reason for despair. Warnings allowed measures like sacrifice to avert the consequences of divine displeasure. As the most visible and spectacular breaches in the normal course of events, celestial prodigies held the highest importance and interest.» — cómo funcionaba el prodigio: anunciaba lo catastrófico o presentaba una queja, y admitía medidas como el sacrificio para evitarlo.

«Examples of noteworthy atmospheric or astronomical phenomena are almost universal, appearing in European, Arabic, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Mesoamerican historical records.» — la extensión del registro de prodigios celestes: europeo, árabe, babilonio, asirio, hebreo, chino, japonés y mesoamericano.

«Perhaps the earliest case comes from the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1504-1450 B.c.), in an inscription that tells of a star shooting toward an enemy camp and killing the men of the night watch. Their horses bolted in terror, and the king took advantage of the confusion to rout his enemies. Though this “miracle of the star” offers few details and might have resulted from some natural meteoric or electrical phenomenon, the entry shows Egyptians ready to interpret an anomalous event as proof that the gods favored Pharaoh.» — el caso más antiguo que registra, el milagro de la estrella de Tutmosis III, con su lectura acotada: pudo ser meteoro o fenómeno eléctrico.

«Similar favorable religious meanings surround biblical stories of the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that guided the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the fiery chariot that carried Elijah to heaven, Ezekiel’s Wheel, or the Star of Bethlehem.» — los casos bíblicos que alinea con ese sentido: la columna de nube y de fuego, el carro de Elías, la Rueda de Ezequiel y la estrella de Belén.

«UFO occupants abduct humans. One of the most prominent UFO experience stories tells of people taken aboard a craft for a medical examination and the creation of hybrid human-alien children.» — cuarto motivo, la abducción: el examen médico a bordo y la creación de niños híbridos.

«A concern for prodigies thrived in Rome as a cornerstone of the state religion. Pliny the Elder included prodigies in his natural history, and historians like Livy and Dio Cassius recorded them as integral elements of the historical record.» — sitúa el prodigio como piedra angular de la religión de Estado romana, con Plinio, Livio y Dión Casio por registro.

«Like UFOs today, prodigies also met with skepticism from learned quarters. Plutarch wrote that a stone fell by the Chersonesus River in Greece just before the Peloponnesian War ended. A writer named Damachus added that for seventy-five days before the stone dropped, a large body of fire like an inflamed cloud moved this way and that in the sky with a broken motion. “It is plain that Damachus must have very indulgent readers,’ was Plutarch’s dry comment, “if this account of his gains credit.» — el precedente antiguo de la incredulidad docta, con la piedra del Quersoneso, el añadido de Damachus y el comentario seco de Plutarco.

«He discounted the idea that crowing roosters foretold victory on the grounds that roosters crow all the time, and who could believe that Jupiter stooped to passing his messages through poultry? After reducing traditional beliefs to absurdity, he made clear his opinion that prodigies held only the significance an interpreter read into them.» — el argumento de Cicerón en De divinatione, con los gallos que cantan a toda hora y Júpiter que no manda recados por aves de corral.

«Little changed in the form or interpretation of strange sights in the sky between ancient and medieval times. The Roman belief that prodigies foretold deaths and calamities lived on—for example, in a passage from Gregory of Tours in 584: “A great beacon traversed the heavens, lighting up the land far and wide some time before the day dawned. Rays of light shone in the sky, and in the north a column of fire was seen to hang from on high for a space of two hours, with an immense star perched on top of it.... In my opinion this all announced the coming death of [the Pretender] Gundovald.» — la continuidad entre lo antiguo y lo medieval, con el faro celeste de Gregorio de Tours de 584 citado dentro.

«Early Christian writers came to frown on wonder stories as a liability in the effort to build a logical theology and maintain orthodox doctrine. The miraculous could not be denied, but some arguments relegated it to an earlier dispensation; others incorporated prodigies into demonology.» — el recelo de los escritores cristianos tempranos ante la maravilla, y las dos salidas: relegarla a otra dispensación o meterla en la demonología.

«If marvels troubled the intellectuals of the Church, such stories found enduring favor with the common folk and added to the popularity of the hagiography literature.» — y el reparto que le importa: lo que incomodaba al intelectual de la Iglesia le gustaba al pueblo y engordó la hagiografía.

«Medieval chroniclers duly included unusual events alongside battles, crusades, disasters, and the acts of kings as matters worthy of record. A love of the marvelous led to collections of curiosities like the Otia imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury, the King’s Mirror, and De nugis curialium of Walter Map.» — las colecciones medievales de curiosidades: la Otia imperialia de Gervasio de Tilbury, el King's Mirror y el De nugis curialium de Walter Map.

«Sometimes the writer added a touch of personal experience, like this demonic bedroom intrusion from the twelfth-century monk Rodolfus Glaber:» — anuncia el caso de experiencia personal que va a citar, la intrusión demoniaca de alcoba del monje Rodolfus Glaber.

«The social and intellectual upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth century ushered in a golden age of prodigies. Religious revolution, social unrest, and widespread armed conflict in Europe fostered millenarian and apocalyptic expectations, while the advent of printing made mass communication possible for the first time.» — por qué hubo edad de oro del prodigio: revolución religiosa, guerra y la imprenta como primera comunicación de masas.

«Most prodigy collectors let the cumulative mass of cases speak for itself and wasted little time on theory. A common rationale held that God relied on peculiar natural events to call the attention of people to their sins or sent signs to terrify sinners into contrition.» — el método de los coleccionistas: acumular sin teorizar, con la razón común de que Dios llamaba la atención sobre el pecado.

«While Calvin meant to downplay interest in prodigies, some collectors set out to prove the literal truth of his dictum. The anonymous author of Mirabilis annus, an English collection of strange events issued in three parts between 1660 and 1662, did not reach the goal of confirming a miracle a day, but he took satisfaction in finding about two per week.» — la ironía que registra: el anónimo de Mirabilis annus quiso probar al pie de la letra el milagro diario de Calvino y llegó a dos por semana.

«By the time Mirabilis annus was published, the gleam had begun to fade from the golden age of prodigies. Their authority suffered when the finger of God began to favor political factions in the English Civil War, and Restoration authorities sought without success to apprehend the writer of Mirabilis annus for using fake reports as Puritan propaganda.» — cuándo empezó a apagarse la edad de oro: cuando el dedo de Dios tomó partido en la Guerra Civil inglesa.

«Intellectual critics like Polydore Vergil and John Spencer followed the path of Cicero and demolished the rationale of prodigies.” They continued to flourish in popular culture and survived as matters of intellectual concern in Puritan enclaves until the early eighteenth century, with both Increase and Cotton Mather collecting “illustrious providences” in New England.» — el desarme intelectual por Polidoro Virgilio y John Spencer, y la supervivencia del prodigio en enclaves puritanos con los Mather.

«A supernatural conception for unusual aerial events faded but never entirely dissipated, as occasional revivals still accompany a time of crisis or religious excitement. Months after the British army retreated from Mons in 1914, a rumor spread that Saint George, angels, or a troop of fifteenth-century archers had protected the troops or even joined the battle. The “Angels of Mons” became so entrenched that many soldiers averred that they had seen the angels—or at least a nurse or fellow soldier claimed to hear the story from a witness.» — los rebrotes del marco sobrenatural en crisis: los Ángeles de Mons de 1914, con la cadena de testimonio de oídas.

«In many cases the nature of the phenomenon is apparent from the description, in contradiction of the usual low expectations for human observers in general or premodern observers in particular.» — y la corrección que hace: muchas veces el fenómeno se reconoce por la descripción, contra la baja expectativa que se tiene del observador premoderno.

«One example from the twelfth-century Chronicle of Jobn of Worcester says that in February of 1130 or 1131, two priests and two clerks were leaving church in the middle of the night when they saw a light in the sky. “The object from which the bright light came was covered with a white cloud. For short periods it would emerge from the cloud as though it was moving upwards, and then after a short interval it would reenter the cloud. ... In shape and size it was like a small pyramid, broad at the bottom and narrow at the top.» — el caso del meteoro de 1130 o 1131 en la crónica de Juan de Worcester, con la descripción citada dentro; la grafía Jobn es de la capa de texto.

«The color of the object was a blend of full moon and blazing flames, and an appearance like a plank stretched upward a long way from the cloud where the brilliant object had been. The frightened and amazed witnesses cried out for others to come and see, though by the time other people arrived, “all that light was completely blotted out except for the faintest trace which could barely be seen on its north side.’ Watchmen and shepherds also witnessed this spectacle and John drew his account from eyewitness reports.» — el resto de esa descripción y su procedencia: el cronista tomó el relato de testigos presenciales.

«stantine saw a cross in the sky and a message—“In this sign, conquer.’ He kept his pledge to convert to Christianity when he won a battle in a.p. 312.» — la cruz de Constantino con su lema, y la promesa cumplida tras la batalla del año 312; la frase arranca al pie de la plana anterior.

«with fiery tresses” went before him. White-robed angels swooped down from heaven to gather around the saint as he prayed, and once when he celebrated mass, “a ball of fire like a comet” burned on his head and rose up like a column. At his death, some fishermen noticed a sudden brightness at midnight as a great pillar of fire rose into heaven from the spot where he died.» — y los siguientes: los ángeles de blanco, la bola de fuego como cometa sobre su cabeza en la misa y el pilar de fuego al morir.

«readier sources for the masses were innumerable pamphlets and broadsides proclaiming “Strange News” or “Look Up and See Wonders.» — las fuentes populares que corrían junto a los libros de prodigios: panfletos y pliegos sueltos con sus títulos de reclamo.

«The aerial sights worthy of note in ancient, medieval, and Reformation literature include comets, eclipses, meteors, auroras, and atmospheric phenomena like mock suns» — el inventario de lo que la literatura antigua registra: cometas, eclipses, meteoros, auroras y parhelios.

«Even more fanciful tableaux, composed of ships in the sky, battles being fought in the air, or combinations of dramatic and symbolic events, are scattered through prodigy accounts.» — Bullard señala los cuadros más fantásticos del repertorio de prodigios: naves en el cielo y batallas libradas en el aire.

«Drawing together diverse sources, Camerarius found descriptions of aerial spears and crosses, a claim that a host of men fought in the air, an account that a sound like a boiling pot descended into a hill and later issued from underground, and a report that there appeared in a field a fiery globe containing a bear and a lion engaged in combat. In one place a globe of fire flew so near the rooftops that villagers were afraid their houses would catch fire, and in many areas the residents turned out to fight a supposed conflagration.» — el inventario de maravillas que Joachim Camerarius reunió sobre Alemania a finales de 1560, con el globo de fuego que traía un oso y un león peleando.

«In historical hindsight this example illuminates the interaction of observation and belief with exceptional clarity. Modern understanding recognizes in the bright streaks, burning clouds, and shifting beams a terminology for the aurora borealis that is still current today.» — por qué elige ese caso: en retrospectiva se reconoce la aurora boreal bajo la descripción.

«References to fires collecting into a tower, spears and crosses, even armies fighting in the sky, reflect stereotypical images for auroral displays in premodern accounts. Fireballs threatening houses and fears of a great fire express the apprehensions of unsuspecting people confronted with a rare and unaccustomed event.» — distingue lo estereotípico de lo aprensivo dentro del mismo relato: torres, lanzas y ejércitos son imágenes fijas de la aurora; el miedo al incendio es de gente sorprendida.

«They also highlight the likelihood that these accounts are grounded in real observation of a widespread and spectacular aurora. The claims that mysterious sounds descended from the sky or spheres with lions and bears landed in a field steer the accounts into fantastic territory, and they also parallel similar escalations of extraordinary claims during modern UFO waves.» — y traza el paralelo con su objeto: los añadidos fantásticos escalan igual que en las oleadas ovni modernas.

«Chroniclers preserved anomalous events of interest to the learned elite, but a broader spectrum of oddities excited the common people, and traces of folk beliefs appear in contemporary writings as well as in collections of oral traditions from the nineteenth century.» — abre el registro popular: lo que excitaba al común quedó en escritos contemporáneos y en colecciones orales del siglo XIX.

«When the headlight of a phantom airship made news in 1897, immigrants in Iowa recalled sightings of the “Devil's Army” in the 1850s over western Germany. This army, another version of the Wild Hunt, also included a bright light at the forefront, and astronomers blamed the planet Venus in this case, as well as with the airships.» — el enlace que le importa: inmigrantes en Iowa recordaron en 1897 al Ejército del Diablo de los años cincuenta, con luz al frente, y en los dos casos se culpó a Venus.

«Ghostly apparitions often involve strange luminous appearances. The Brown Mountain lights of North Carolina appear over the crest of the mountain and float down it, with local teenagers alleging that they park on remote roads to watch tiny balls of light bounce and scatter like sparks while yardwide globes from the mountaintop hiss and roll as they swoop low overhead.» — las luces de Brown Mountain, en Carolina del Norte, con la leyenda adolescente que las acompaña.

«In Texas the Marfa Lights dart close to the ground and inspire their own lurid teenage legends of cars that are incinerated when they pursue too closely. The will-o-the-wisp or jack-o’-lantern appears in remote or marshy areas and leads travelers astray, while the Min-Min light of Australia and the Dragon Lantern of Japan and China are other small, darting lights with supernatural attributes.» — el resto del repertorio de luces: las de Marfa, el fuego fatuo, la luz Min-Min australiana y la Linterna del Dragón de Japón y China.

«Death omens maintain an enduring presence in folk belief, such as the corpse candles of Wales, small lights floating above the ground that foretell a death some few days before it occurs.» — el presagio de muerte como creencia persistente, con las velas de cadáver galesas.

«An informant from Illinois said that “just at sunset I was out in the yard and I saw a big ball of fire in the heaven and a little ball of fire drop from it. I knew someone was going to die. And my sister took sick and died in two days after that, and her baby died a month after that.» — el testimonio de una informante de Illinois sobre la bola de fuego grande y la pequeña que cae, citado tal cual.

«Some strange appearances seem to serve only as reminders that mysterious things still happen. A Tennessee fugitive hiding in an orchard saw a big wheel of fire roll by. It lit up the surroundings and made a crunching sound like footsteps in snow. A Pennsylvania informant said that while driving along a road one rainy day in 1923 a golden red fireball four feet in diameter floated to the ground then rose back into the air.» — dos casos que, dice, solo recuerdan que aún pasan cosas raras: la rueda de fuego de Tennessee y la bola dorada de Pensilvania de 1923.

«Some folklore accounts parallel the electromagnetic effects and physical injuries reported by UFO witnesses. A West Virginia ghost story tells that as a rider passed the spot where a murdered man was buried, his horse seemed suddenly burdened with a heavy weight, and he looked around to see a headless body sitting behind him. It disappeared once the horse struggled past the grave, whereupon the horse galloped home and shied away from that stretch of road ever after.» — el paralelo entre el folclore y los efectos físicos del reporte ovni, con la historia de fantasmas de Virginia Occidental.

«Another man suffered paralysis after he struck a ghostly light with his stick, and his mouth remained twisted to one side for a long time.» — y el segundo paralelo: la parálisis y la boca torcida de quien golpeó una luz fantasmal con su bastón.

«A supernatural conception did not commit ancient and medieval interpreters to wild or irrational beliefs. The intellectual elite understood celestial events in largely naturalistic terms, yet they preserved a notion of dual causation that allowed comets to belong to nature even as they harbingered war or the death of kings.» — corrige la caricatura del intérprete antiguo: la élite entendía lo celeste en términos naturalistas y mantenía la doble causalidad.

«Even this limited partnership unraveled as rationalism and science drove an absolute divide between nature and the supernatural. Edmund Halley established comets as predictable orbital bodies, Isaac Newton laid out the physical laws governing motion, and Pierre-Simon de Laplace formulated a self-stabilizing celestial mechanics that led to a supposed conversation when Napoleon asked where God was in the equations and Laplace answered that he had no need for that hypothesis.» — cómo se deshizo esa sociedad: Halley con los cometas, Newton con las leyes del movimiento y Laplace con su mecánica celeste.

«Astronomy and physics—later organic chemistry and evolutionary biology, and still later psychoanalysis and existential philosophy—would clip away link by link the notions that all things interrelated in a Great Chain of Being.» — la cadena de disciplinas que fue cortando eslabón por eslabón la Gran Cadena del Ser.

«In a scientific framework, aerial sights became meteoric, auroral, or weather related, with no cranny or corner left over for miracles and prodigies. This rigid view demanded exclusive natural causation or nothing, with any claim to the contrary due to human error, “vulgar superstition,’ or an unfamiliar aspect of nature waiting to be cataloged and classified.» — el marco nuevo y su exigencia: causa natural exclusiva o nada, y lo demás por error humano o superstición vulgar.

«Yet a curious thing happened on the way to a world free of mysteries. Even as science swept away all supernatural appearances, it began to shape a new class of natural anomalies out of the odds and ends of scientific observation itself. The duty to observe and record natural events included attention to anything out of the ordinary, so that newspapers and scientific magazines became repositories for anecdotal accounts of noteworthy oddities. Nature refused to obey its own laws all the time and presented reliable witnesses with the occasional baffling, seemingly unnatural event, like the meteor that flew up instead of down in unconscionable defiance of proper meteoric behavior.» — la ironía que registra: la propia ciencia fabricó una clase nueva de anomalías al obligarse a registrar lo fuera de lo común.

«Most scientists gladly ignored these challenges to the standard version of scientific reality, but such leftovers attracted the interest of the American author Charles Fort (1874-1932). He spent most of his adult life searching journals and newspapers for accounts of black snows, rains of frogs, spontaneous human combustion, and strange lights cruising in the night, events that came to be known as “Fortean phenomena’ in his honor.» — presenta a Charles Fort y lo que buscaba en diarios y revistas: nieves negras, lluvias de ranas, combustión humana espontánea y luces nocturnas.

«Fort offered his own theories, sometimes more than one for the same events. He was ambivalent about extraterrestrial visitation, sometimes defending it, sometimes arguing that he could sooner believe a grasshopper could jump on a shooting cannonball than accept interplanetary travel.» — la ambivalencia de Fort ante la visita extraterrestre, con su símil del saltamontes y la bala de cañón.

«As an alternative he proposed that outer space held vast islands floating in a cosmic “Super-Sargasso Sea,’ now and then visible to astronomers, here and there dropping chunks of ice or fish to fall from the sky as otherworldly flotsam and jetsam washed up on the earthly shore.» — la alternativa de Fort: el Super-Sargasso Sea, con islas cósmicas que sueltan hielo y peces sobre la Tierra.

«Fort valued the chance to needle orthodoxy more than the solution. His friend Tiffany Thayer turned attacks on orthodoxy into a lifelong crusade. Thayer founded the Fortean Society in 1931, and Fort, the true iconoclast, refused to join; but members included such literary lights as Theodore Dreiser and Booth Tarkington.» — lo que a Fort le importaba, y la Fortean Society que su amigo Tiffany Thayer fundó en 1931 con Dreiser y Tarkington entre sus miembros.

«The society persisted until Thayer's death in 1959, issuing Doubt, an irregular journal that printed accounts of Fortean events and expositions of unconventional theories. A cover illustration that sums up the offbeat creed of the society depicts a cherub urinating on mathematical equations.» — la revista Doubt y la portada que él toma por credo de la sociedad: un querubín orinando sobre ecuaciones.

«When the saucers began to fly in 1947, Doubt carried extensive coverage, but also Thayer's characteristic rejection of orthodoxy, even a freshly minted one, when he complained that since the saucer business started, no one bothered to see peculiar meteors any more.» — y la queja de Thayer, que rechazaba hasta la ortodoxia recién acuñada: desde los platillos nadie se molestaba en ver meteoros raros.

«The sort of reports that attracted Fort included strange meteoric appearances—for example, a stream of luminous bodies that rose from the horizon a little before sunrise on March 22, 1880, at Kattenau, Germany, and traveled from east to west like a string of beads shining with a brilliant light.» — el tipo de reporte que atraía a Fort, con el caso de Kattenau, Alemania, del 22 de marzo de 1880.

«In an example from an evening in 1868, several witnesses in Oxford, England, noticed “a fine white cloud about five degrees in length and one degree in breadth” (the full moon occupies one-half of one degree of arc).» — el caso de Oxford de 1868, con la nube blanca y la escala angular puesta por Bullard entre paréntesis.

«Phenomena attributed to atmospheric electricity or ball lightning sometimes suggested something else to Fort: As a thunderstorm threatened Burlington, Vermont, at noon on July 2, 1907, a sharp explosion knocked a horse to the ground and several citizens reported that a ball of fire had exploded as it fell from the sky.» — el caso de Burlington, Vermont, del 2 de julio de 1907, con la explosión que tiró a un caballo.

«Though the writer did not say how the torpedo disappeared, he had some credentials for honesty, since he was a Methodist bishop and was conversing at a street corner with a former governor of the state.» — y el peso que le da al testigo: obispo metodista conversando en una esquina con un exgobernador del estado.

«Some observations fitted no ready-made category and simply pointed toward more strangeness than conventional science allowed. One account that Fort took for support of his “islands in space” theory came from a Swiss astronomer who saw a spindleshaped body obscure part of the sun on August 9, 1762. The object might have been an elongated sunspot except it moved so slowly that its transit required a month. Another observer some distance away also watched the progress of the object, but it crossed a different segment of the solar disk while Paris observers did not see the object at all, indicating relative closeness to earth.» — el caso del cuerpo en forma de huso ante el Sol, del 9 de agosto de 1762, que Fort usó para su teoría de las islas del espacio.

«For sheer weirdness few accounts can rival the aerial monster of Crawfordsville, Indiana. As two icemen hitched their team at 2 A.M. on September 5, 1891, ‘a strange sensation of awe and dread” swept over them. A headless apparition, 20 feet long by 8 feet wide and seemingly 100 feet overhead, flew by means of several pairs of fins. The men fled into the barn and watched the object circle.» — el monstruo aéreo de Crawfordsville, Indiana, del 5 de septiembre de 1891, sin cabeza y con pares de aletas.

«Corroboration came from a Methodist minister who stepped outside and saw something similar to floating drapery squirm like a serpent as it rose and descended over his church. Other residents reported that the birds chirped all night as if in distress, and that clue convinced two skeptics that the town’s recently installed electric lights had disturbed a flock of killdeer into fying about in confusion.» — la corroboración del ministro metodista y la explicación escéptica por chorlitos alborotados por el alumbrado eléctrico recién instalado.

«Yet one witness also attributed a single red glowing eye to the creature—similar to the light soon destined to become a standard feature in phantom airship reports. The unfortunate minister became recipient of unsolicited advice to take the Keeley cure for alcoholism, foreshadowing the ridicule later to descend on UFO witnesses.» — los dos detalles con que cierra el caso: el ojo rojo que anticipa la luz de las aeronaves fantasma, y el consejo de curarse del alcoholismo, que anticipa la burla al testigo de ovnis.

«Scientific thinking declared independence for natural events» — el resultado del divorcio entre ciencia y sobrenatural: el suceso natural queda independiente.

«they ran their course isolated from human affairs, moral values, or divine intervention, free of any dual causation and without any prophetic tie to the future.» — y la consecuencia completa: sin causalidad doble, sin valor moral y sin lazo profético con el futuro.

«His four books, The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo!» — los cuatro libros de Charles Fort, con sus fechas.

«revel in the accumulated evidence that the world is not as neatly circumscribed as scientific dogma alleges and skewer with fine wit the exclusionary habits of scientists as they sacrifice the phenomena to save the theories.» — lo que esos libros hacen: mostrar que el mundo no está tan circunscrito y pinchar el hábito excluyente de los científicos.

«aerial scenes in the Wild Hunt or Furious Host, a troop of spirits flying through the air accompanied by dogs with fiery eyes. Said to be the lost souls of pagans and sometimes led by Wotan or Thor, this host may swoop down to kidnap a passerby to join the troop. This captive then disappears forever or reappears some distance away, often demented and with a finger cut off.» — la Cacería Salvaje o Hueste Furiosa: tropa de espíritus con perros de ojos de fuego, a veces guiada por Wotan o Thor, que rapta al caminante y lo devuelve demente y sin un dedo.

«Humans have long envied the birds and dreamed of flight. Legendry and literature include flying chariots of the Indian epic Ramayana, and Icarus, whose wings of wax and feathers melted when he soared too near the sun.» — Bullard arranca el marco tecnológico por sus antecedentes literarios: los carros voladores del Ramayana y el Ícaro de alas de cera.

«Nothing came of such airy visions until the Mongolfier brothers sent their first balloon aloft in 1783. Controlled flight seemed just around the corner; however, this optimism hid a festering truth that although balloons could rise into the air, the balloons remained at the mercy of the winds, and no practical heavier-than-air craft succeeded during the nineteenth century. While steamships and locomotives, telegraph and telephone, electric lights and motors, phonographs and X-rays sprang unheralded from workshops to surprise the public and change the world, the long-awaited flying machine remained elusive. Inventors both serious and crackpot worked on the problem in seemingly every town, but too many trials ended in pratfalls and established flying machines as a proverbial folly.» — el desfase que le interesa: globos desde 1783, y ninguna máquina más pesada que el aire en todo el siglo XIX.

«Yet failures never dashed a faith that aerial navigation would come to pass, and newspaper writers even proclaimed that it would serve as the crowning achievement of the nineteenth century. As time ran out and expectations went unfulfilled, hope took over from reality as people began to report wonders in technological form.» — la fórmula con que explica la ola: agotado el plazo y sin cumplirse la expectativa, la esperanza suplió a la realidad.

«An expedition to reach the North Pole by balloon left Sweden in the summer of 1897, and repeated sightings from both Canada and Siberia of a pear-shaped body carrying a light raised hopes that Salomon Andrée had succeeded in his quest. In fact, he was never seen alive again, and only in 1930 were the remains of the balloon and its crew found on an island well short of the pole, after a flight that never reached Canada or Siberia.» — el caso de Salomon Andrée: avistamientos desde Canadá y Siberia alentaron la esperanza, y su globo apareció en 1930 muy lejos de ahí.

«Magazines like Scientific American and illustrated newspapers had planted the image of an oval gas bag with an undercarriage and propeller as the aircraft design most likely to succeed. By the 1890s reports aired that such a machine was actually flying. Dispatches from Russian Poland in 1892 claimed nightly visits of a lighted cigar-shaped dirigible from Germany that flew deep into Russian territory on espionage missions.» — cómo la prensa ilustrada plantó la imagen del dirigible con hélice, y los reportes de 1892 desde la Polonia rusa.

«Such feats of control and long-distance flight so far surpassed the acknowledged aeronautical capabilities of the day that the New York Times labeled the report “a fishy story that comes from Russian sources,” but a similar supposed intrusion over the forts at Kovno resulted in the garrison opening fire to drive off the invader.» — la reacción doble ante esos reportes: el New York Times los llamó cuento sospechoso y la guarnición de Kovno abrió fuego.

«Of all the strange stories to titillate readers of American newspapers, few can surpass a report in the Sacramento, California, Evening Bee for November 18, 1896. Voices in the Sky,’ the headline read. “People Declare They Heard Them and Saw a Light. Aerial Ship, Ghost Story, or Meteor—As You Like.’ The reporter's mock-heroic style could not conceal a breathless hope that some inventor had solved the problem of aerial navigation before the end of the century after all:» — el reporte del Evening Bee de Sacramento del 18 de noviembre de 1896, con su encabezado y su estilo de burla que no oculta la esperanza.

«Hundreds of people saw the light, a few saw a dark balloon shape above the light and a wheel driving the object, and some heard a voice calling, “Lift her up quick! You are making directly for that steeple!» — el reparto de lo que la gente dijo ver y oír, con la voz que gritaba desde el aire citada dentro.

«Reports spread up and down the state over the next three weeks while newspapers buzzed with attempts to explain the apparition. Some speculators asked if a New York inventor fulfilled his boast to fly to San Francisco, others blamed the light on a lantern attached to a kite or toy balloon. One answer for the more elaborate stories turned to a‘car barn conspiracy” of city streetcar drivers enjoying a good hoax. The San Francisco Call played up the story with headlines and illustrations of the ship as an egg-shaped body with a gondola beneath, four vast propellers along the sides, and a brilliant light attached. A rival newspaper, William Randolph Hearst's Examiner, played the skeptic and ridiculed the Call for credulity.» — las explicaciones que corrieron —el inventor de Nueva York, el papalote con farol, la conspiración de los tranviarios— y el pleito entre el Call y el Examiner de Hearst.

«On April 1 the ship appeared at Kansas City, and over the next six weeks the airship put on an exhibition that would far surpass the California display in number of reports and geographical scope.» — la escala de la ola de abril de 1897 frente a la californiana.

«The airship reached its high tide of credibility on April 9-12 as the vessel spent a weekend touring the largest cities of the Midwest. Crowds observed the ship from the rooftops of Chicago on Friday night, the ninth, and hundreds of Evanston people saw a brilliant light swing back and forth like a searchlight. An astronomer explained the light as Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse), but many witnesses scoffed at this explanation since the searchlight was much brighter than any star.» — el fin de semana de mayor crédito, con la explicación astronómica por Betelgeuse rechazada por los testigos.

«Crowds in St. Louis watched a floating light for half an hour on Saturday night, while a square reddish light half the size of the moon dimmed and flashed over Minneapolis that same night, then returned before thousands of witnesses on Sunday.» — el recorrido por San Luis y Mineápolis ese mismo fin de semana.

«Milwaukee had its turn on Sunday night when thousands saw the lighted object. “It travelled toward the southwest until it reached a point directly over the City Hall, where it stopped for a quarter of an hour. Then the excitement in the downtown districts became intense. It was reported that attempts were being made to anchor the ship.”* On Monday it returned to Saint Louis, where great crowds saw the searchlight sweep the ground.» — la parada sobre el ayuntamiento de Milwaukee, con el rumor de que intentaban anclar la nave.

«For the moment, newspaper writers declared that “within the last three days the evidence that something unusual is moving midst the clouds has become so conclusive and has so much corroboration that wiseacres have ceased to jibe, and while wondering what the mystery can be, they are doing their utmost to solve it.» — el momento en que la prensa dejó de burlarse, citado textualmente.

«Some newsmen proposed that a secretive inventor headed for Washington and intended to patent his invention there.” They mapped an eastward progression from Illinois to Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia, but by midmonth any semblance of consistent movement collapsed when reports fanned out across the country. As airships appeared in places hundreds of miles apart at the same hour and minute, once-favorable commentators reversed their views.» — y el momento en que se derrumbó la hipótesis del inventor: la nave apareció en lugares a cientos de millas a la misma hora y minuto.

«A proliferation of hoaxes and fantastic tales further eroded the credibility of the claims. One airship crashed in Missouri, another blew up in midair over Michigan. The anchor snagged an Iowa man’s trousers, leading to a headline that read “Farmer’s Garments and Veracity Badly Strained.» — los fraudes que erosionaron el resto, con el ancla que enganchó los pantalones de un granjero de Iowa y el titular de burla.

«Three of the most elaborate tales featured Martians. A Missouri hiker came across an airship on the ground and saw a man and woman as naked as Adam and Eve standing nearby. Though unable to communicate in English, the strangers pointed to the sky and seemed to indicate that Mars was their home.» — los tres relatos marcianos, empezando por el excursionista de Misuri y la pareja desnuda que señalaba al cielo.

«At Aurora, Texas, an airship crashed into a windmill and exploded, scattering fiery fragments and leaving the disfigured remains of the pilot for burial in the local cemetery. This man “was not an inhabitant of this world” and presumably a Martian, according to the Dallas Morning News of April 19.» — el choque de Aurora, Texas, con el piloto sepultado en el cementerio local y declarado no habitante de este mundo.

«The great airship wave of 1896-1897 makes a striking impression on anyone who reads the newspaper reports as they unfold from day to day, but a disappointment lurks beneath the surface: not one of the thousand or so reports seems to describe a genuine UFO. Most accounts say nothing more than “the airship was seen last night,’ while sightings reported at greater depth resolve into accurate observations of conventional phenomena or spectacular appearances due to hoaxes.» — su conclusión sobre la ola entera: ninguno de los mil reportes parece describir un ovni genuino.

«Honest and straightforward but in a sense insipid, the description easily applies to the planet Venus, then brilliant in the west. The slow movement befits a heavenly body as it sets, and the maneuvering suggests autokinesis, an illusion of motion in a point source of light when watched against a dark background.» — y cómo lo resuelve: Venus brillante al poniente, con la autocinesis explicando el movimiento aparente.

«In other cases where people saw multiple lights or structural features, a fire balloon or a kite bearing a paper lantern was the likely culprit. Paper hot-air balloons with candles or alcohol lamps to provide lift and illumination were a popular form of Fourth of July fireworks. When two Iowa reporters from the Burlington Hawk-Eye sent up several of these balloons, dozens of witnesses described full-blown airships with headlights, machinery, and aerial voices.» — los globos de papel con vela o lámpara de alcohol, y el experimento de dos reporteros de Iowa que produjo aeronaves completas en decenas de testigos.

«Many local papers concluded an airship story with the names of the citizens who sent up the balloon as a joke on their neighbors, while in some cases a balloon left its burnt-out carcass in some farmer's field or became a fire hazard, setting a haystack on fire or causing minor damage to a rooftop.» — los rastros materiales que dejaban esas bromas: el armazón quemado en un campo, un pajar encendido.

«Modern standards of journalistic integrity did not prevail in the 1890s, and newspaper hoaxes were a popular form of entertainment. When news ran scarce, the “snake editor” concocted a yarn about giant snakes or other sorts of “nature fakes,’ and airships fitted perfectly into this tradition. With correspondents paid for their submissions by the column inch, they had incentive to produce printable news even if they had to imagine it.» — el sistema de incentivos de la prensa de los noventa, con el editor de serpientes y el pago por pulgada de columna.

«Local rivalries led one newspaper to attribute an airship—and insobriety— to another community as a form of practical joke, while civic pride dictated that every town should have its visit, a feeling expressed in an Illinois newspaper: “Durand is determined not to be outdone by any of her one-horse neighboring towns, and is bound to keep in touch with everything that is going the rounds.» — las rivalidades locales y el orgullo cívico como motores del rumor, con la cita de un periódico de Illinois.

«Courting couples discovered yet another reason to see the airship—they could excuse themselves for staying out late at night. The Aurora crash appears to be a fabrication since local historians found no evidence for it, and residents had a motive for telling the story since the town had been struggling after the railroad bypassed it a few years earlier and a hoax might draw attention.» — dos motivos más: las parejas que justificaban su trasnoche, y el pueblo de Aurora buscando atención tras quedarse sin ferrocarril.

«Hamilton confessed his calf-napping hoax in response to a newspaper editor's inquiry, and subsequent research made clear that Hamilton belonged to the same Saturday-afternoon liar’s club as the prominent people who signed the affidavit attesting to his truthful character. In a time when interactions were face to face and people knew the honesty of their neighbors, documents meant little and a joke did no harm to a man’s reputation.» — la confesión de Hamilton y el club de mentirosos al que pertenecían los firmantes del afidávit, con la moraleja sobre lo que valía un documento entonces.

«Strong circumstantial accounts remain that have no obvious paper balloon hanging over them or any charms of Venus.» — reconoce que queda un residuo de relatos circunstanciales fuertes sin globo de papel ni Venus que los expliquen.

«An argument for a genuine flying object could stand on this sort of testimony, but while the description is strong the testimonial value must rate as weak. Only one witness affirms the sighting, and other cases make plain that even reputable individuals can be guilty of tale-telling. With questions overshadowing this remainder of quality reports, the authenticity of even one phantom airship seems doubtful.» — y aun así cierra en contra: la descripción es fuerte y el valor testimonial débil, con un solo testigo.

«The crowning achievement of the nineteenth century had to await the onset of the twentieth, when Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first successful dirigible airship in 1900. For once reality outstripped imagination as the sleek and enormous Zeppelins overawed crowds of admiring onlookers.» — el desenlace tecnológico: el primer dirigible de Ferdinand von Zeppelin en 1900, con la realidad rebasando por una vez a la imaginación.

«The Wright Brothers tested the first successful heavier-than-air craft in 1903, but their efforts left little deeper public impression than attempts by a host of other would-be aviators until 1908, when the U.S. Army invited the Wrights to demonstrate their flier and the airplane suddenly emerged from its cocoon of wooly rumors as a practical reality at last.” The world then went on a glorious binge of air craziness for several years to come.» — y el momento en que el avión dejó de ser rumor: la demostración de los Wright ante el Ejército en 1908.

«Where supernatural and naturalistic anomalies changed little over time, descriptions of mysterious aircraft kept pace with the rapid development of genuine aviation technology—or rather, stayed one step ahead of the game.» — la diferencia que le importa entre marcos: el prodigio y la anomalía cambian poco, la aeronave misteriosa sigue el paso de la técnica y va un paso adelante.

«These reports offer transparent glimpses of expectation shaping the description and interpretation of strange sights in the sky, starting in the latter half of the nineteenth century and leading up to the advent of flying saucers in 1947.» — por qué le sirven esos reportes: dejan ver a la expectativa moldeando la descripción.

«The design of phantom aircraft in 1897 left much to the imagination as claimants fantasized chimerical combinations of gas bags, propellers, and bird wings in aerodynamically impossible configurations.” Air-conscious witnesses of the great pandemic constrained themselves to see the same airworthy designs that real pilots flew, though the hallmark searchlight persisted despite its implausibility, given that the weight of such an apparatus challenged even the great Zeppelins.» — el contraste de diseños entre las dos olas, con la excepción que persiste contra toda verosimilitud: el reflector.

«The airship season of 1909 opened in March when a patrolling British constable heard an engine and looked up to see a powerful light attached to a narrow, oblong body outlined against the stars. By May airship sightings became a daily affair and the source of conflicting rumors about inventors, advertising schemes, and toy balloons, but a growing suspicion took hold that a German craft had arrived on a spying mission. Seeming confirmation came when a Mr. Lethbridge reported a tube-shaped machine on the ground and overheard two men in fur coats speak a foreign language.» — la temporada británica de 1909, con la sospecha del espía alemán y el reporte del señor Lethbridge.

«If the British preferred a dirigible shape, the claims of Massachusetts inventor Wallace E. Tillinghast that he flew an airplane to New York and back set the pattern for sightings across New England in December, when crowds in Boston saw a brilliant headlight and residents of Revere watched two lights reflected on huge wings. Experienced sky watchers complained that Christmas shoppers grew excited over Venus rather than Tillinghast’s airplane.» — la temporada de Nueva Inglaterra de diciembre de 1909, en torno a Wallace E. Tillinghast, con Venus otra vez de por medio.

«At the end of January 1897 sightings of a bright flying light resumed in Nebraska» — el resurgimiento de la ola a finales de enero de 1897, en Nebraska y Kansas.

«The reports remained local news until appearances in Omaha beginning in mid-March attracted national attention. Some two hundred Topeka residents watched a square red light on the twenty-seventh, among them Governor Leedy anda crowd on the statehouse steps.“I don't know what it is,’ he said, “but I hope it will solve the railroad problem.» — el salto a la atención nacional, con el gobernador Leedy entre los doscientos testigos de Topeka y su comentario citado.

«Stories of landings began to multiply during mid-April when two Illinois farmhands talked with crewmen as they worked to repair the electrical apparatus.» — los aterrizajes de mediados de abril, con dos peones de Illinois conversando con la tripulación.

«A few days later a sensational yarn arrived from Le Roy, Kansas, where commotion among the livestock wakened farmer Alexander Hamilton, who rushed outside with his son and hired man to behold an airship three hundred feet long over his cow lot. Strange beings scanned the area with a searchlight and raised the ship» — el caso del granjero Alexander Hamilton en Le Roy, Kansas, con la aeronave de noventa metros sobre su corral.

«when the men approached, but the beings had roped a heifer and its head was caught in a fence. Hamilton cut the fence and the airship departed with the heifer, but another farmer found the remains of a butchered cow the next day and puzzled over an absence of footprints in the soft soil. A who's who of the county's prominent citizens vouched for Hamilton's trustworthiness in a signed affidavit.» — el desenlace del caso Hamilton: la ternera se la llevaron, apareció descuartizada sin huellas alrededor, y los notables del condado firmaron un afidávit por su honradez.

«A respected editor of a Troy, Kansas, newspaper wrote an honest and straightforward account of a sighting: We have read a great deal... about a mysterious air ship, and supposed it was some trick or sensational story. But last Sunday night ... our citizens had a sight of it. It was directly over town, and somewhat resembled the headlight of a locomotive.» — el reporte honesto y directo del editor de Troy, Kansas, citado dentro.

«After slowly moving westward, maneuvering as it went, it sank below the horizon. Whether there is a trick in this matter or not, there is something mysterious about hee” Honest and straightforward but in a sense insipid, the description easily applies to the planet Venus, then brilliant in the west. The slow movement befits a heavenly body as it sets, and the maneuvering suggests autokinesis, an illusion of motion in a point source of light when watched against a dark background.» — y cómo lo resuelve: Venus brillante al poniente, con la autocinesis explicando el movimiento aparente.

«The phantom doubles of airships and airplanes appeared almost constantly from 1908 through the First World War, in a global pandemic of sightings that unfolded to a mood initially giddy with excitement over the» — la pandemia global de aeronaves y aviones fantasma, de 1908 a la Primera Guerra.

«new wonder of aviation, later turning somber in tone as aerial attack became a threat and then a reality.» — y su cambio de tono cuando el ataque aéreo dejó de ser amenaza y se volvió hecho.

«New Yorkers gathered nightly to watch a brilliant light, and a rumor circulated that a balloon sent up from Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey lifted an arc light several miles high. Sightings of the “Edison Star” became yearly affairs for a while, and even as late as 1910 Edison continued to receive letters asking him to explain his invention or begging him to settle a bet. When he answered at all, the response was a terse note that the star was nothing but Venus.» — el rumor de la Estrella de Edison desde enero de 1886, con el propio Edison contestando por años que era Venus.

«than-air craft stopped at Linton, Indiana, to take on three tons of coal.» — el detalle que él marca como indigerible en los aterrizajes de 1897: una nave más ligera que el aire cargando tres toneladas de carbón en Linton, Indiana.

«By war's end familiarity had dulled the amazement that airplanes once inspired, but they gained a new hold on human interest when a series of “ghost flier” reports from Sweden and Norway aroused suspicions that liquor smugglers had updated their delivery methods. Starting in late 1933 and reappearing for several years to come, accounts from witnesses described the flier as a large airplane with a searchlight. Some witnesses said they heard an engine noise as the plane flew even in the worst blizzard conditions.» — Bullard sigue el marco tecnológico hasta los ghost fliers escandinavos desde finales de 1933, primero atribuidos a contrabandistas de licor.

«Mystery airplanes also appeared at this time over English locations, first to suspicions of criminal activity, then to worries over Nazi espionage.» — los aviones misteriosos ingleses del mismo periodo, y el cambio de sospechoso: del delincuente al espía nazi.

«A new round of mysterious aircraft for a new World War included several round objects that flew over Los Angeles in the early hours of February 25, 1942, only weeks after Pearl Harbor. Anti-aircraft batteries fired 1,430 rounds at the intruders, and a news photograph shows an apparent round object or objects caught in crisscrossing searchlight beams while shells burst nearby, though to no apparent effect.» — el episodio de Los Ángeles del 25 de febrero de 1942, con 1 430 disparos antiaéreos y una foto de prensa que muestra un objeto entre haces de reflector.

«By late 1944 air crews reported that balls of fire paced bombers and night fighters flying missions over Germany. The mystery lights were called “foo fighters” by the Americans and “buckets of blood” by the British. Many airmen feared a secret enemy weapon, but the only harm done was to their peace of mind.» — los foo fighters de 1944, llamados buckets of blood por los británicos, con el único daño que él les reconoce: la tranquilidad de las tripulaciones.

«The postwar years marked another era of mercurial development in aviation as jets and rockets crossed over from science fiction to reality, as new experimental designs and speed records proliferated. A dark object carrying a bright light had prevailed for fifty years as the standard appearance for technological aerial anomalies, but something new was in the air.» — el cambio de figura tras la guerra: el objeto oscuro con luz brillante había reinado cincuenta años.

«During the summer of 1946 the Swedish military received nearly a thousand reports of luminous trails and wingless cigar-shaped bodies that came to be known as “ghost rockets.” An astronomer reported a torpedo-shaped body ninety feet long and glistening like metal on August 12. This object exploded with a silent but blinding flash.» — los ghost rockets suecos del verano de 1946, con casi mil reportes y el cuerpo de treinta metros que describió un astrónomo.

«Swedish critics noted that sightings rose as the Perseid meteor shower peaked in August, but reports that the rockets flew at low altitude, reversed direction, and made a buzzing sound led to fears that the Soviets were testing German rocket designs.» — el reparto entre la explicación por las Perseidas y los rasgos que no encajaban: baja altitud, cambio de dirección y zumbido.

«San Diego newspapers reported that a big airplane-like object, equipped with two lights or a surrounding glow, maneuvered and flapped its wings over the city on October 9, 1946. A medium picked up communications from the occupants saying they were from space and that the name of the ship was Kareeta.» — el caso del Kareeta en San Diego, del 9 de octubre de 1946, con una médium recibiendo el nombre de la nave.

«A clear sense of purpose motivated Lycosthenes, the Mathers, and the author of Mirabilis annus to collect aerial prodigies. Religious doctrine gave meaning to these sights as signs from God and joined them with prodigious wonders of all sorts as examples of divine providence.» — por qué coleccionaban los compiladores de prodigios: la doctrina religiosa daba sentido y urgencia a relatos dispersos y estereotipados.

«Natural anomalies had a place in the scientific scheme of understanding but little significance or meaning, ‘They remained fringe occurrences that observers were obliged to record but seldom to reckon with as challenges to prevailing theory.» — el contraste con el marco científico: la anomalía natural tenía lugar y no significado, y nadie la trataba como desafío a la teoría.

«Phantom airships and their successors excited great temporary interest but never acquired a continuity of awareness. They remained manifestations of the expectations of their time, of concern to law enforcement, national defense, or public curiosity, but they were too well “known” to qualify as anomalies. No one wondered what they were, only who invented or piloted them.» — y el tercer marco: la aeronave fantasma interesaba mucho y por poco tiempo, porque se sabía demasiado bien qué era.

«Without some overriding concern even the 1897 wave quickly passed from memory, and only one or two newspapers printed vague references to the earlier furor during the renewed excitement in 1909. Each airship wave seemingly flared up as an isolated event and never caught fire with a sense of past or larger purpose.» — la consecuencia de esa falta de marco: la ola de 1897 se olvidó, y en 1909 apenas uno o dos periódicos la recordaron.

«Charles Fort introduced a new conceptual framework that brought back coherence to strange sights in the sky. He looked beyond preoccupation with secretive inventors to propose an unearthly origin for unknown lights and aerial objects, whether they belonged to space-faring Martians or visitors sailing the Super-Sargasso Sea. His explanation reached out to embrace rains of fish, black snows, and a host of other weird happenings ignored by science, so that this orphan phenomena acquired a new conceptual family as meaningful events in a Fortean cosmology distinct from the prevailing scientific worldview.» — lo que Fort aportó: un marco que devolvió coherencia y adoptó al fenómeno huérfano en una cosmología propia.

«Ufology promoted a less imaginative but more immediately appealing framework. It borrowed the conventional scientific universe and an extraterrestrial hypothesis where aliens do little more than earthly astronauts, only with more advanced technology.» — y lo que la ufología puso en su lugar: el universo científico convencional más alienígenas que hacen poco más que astronautas terrestres.

«Historical reports have held a continuing place in ufological thought and argument as key evidence for extraterrestrial visits. No 1950s saucer book was complete without a nod to historical cases. Donald Keyhoe filled several pages of The Flying Saucers Are Real (1950) with accounts of airships and other Fortean reports.» — el lugar fijo del reporte histórico en el argumento ufológico, con Keyhoe llenando planas de The Flying Saucers Are Real.

«H. T. Wilkins extended the ufological past to Roman and medieval times in Flying Saucers on the Attack (1954), while Desmond Leslie reached back to cite the vimanas from Hindu epics as advanced aircraft of an ancient nuclear war in Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953).» — los dos que llevaron el pasado ufológico más atrás: Wilkins hasta Roma y la Edad Media, y Desmond Leslie hasta los vimanas de la épica hindú.

«Astronomer M. K. Jessup reread biblical chariots and fiery clouds as spaceships in UFO and the Bible (1956), and Fort's rains of fish and changes on the moon as examples of alien activity in The Case for the UFO (1955) and The Expanding Case for the UFO (1957).» — la relectura de M. K. Jessup: carros bíblicos y nubes de fuego como naves, y las lluvias de peces de Fort como actividad alienígena.

«These early pro-UFO treatments established the ideas of an age-old lineage for flying saucers, while opponent Donald Menzel began an enduring critical trend in Flying Saucers (1953) when he cited airships and prodigies as examples of natural causes mistaken for wonderful occurrences and concluded that the same confusion continues today.» — y la tendencia crítica que arranca al mismo tiempo, con Menzel usando aeronaves y prodigios como ejemplos de causas naturales mal leídas.

«Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods fascinated readers in 1970 with wild claims that ancient astronauts had visited earth and intervened in human affairs. Ufologists responded to his unsubstantiated assertions with less enthusiasm, but he only repeated ideas that had accumulated quietly in the literature since the 1950s.» — sitúa a von Däniken en 1970 y le quita originalidad: repetía ideas acumuladas en la literatura desde los cincuenta.

«These speculations hold an inherent attractiveness. Once pointed out, the similarity of a carving on a Mayan sarcophagus to an astronaut in a rocket ship is hard to forget, while the conventional interpretation of a man suspended between this world and the next amid symbolic religious figures seems bland and unimaginative by comparison.» — por qué convencen esas especulaciones: el sarcófago maya leído como astronauta es difícil de olvidar, y la lectura convencional resulta sosa al lado.

«Another memorable souvenir of the ancient astronaut era is The Spaceships of Ezekiel (1974), wherein a technological facelift by NASA engineer Josef Blumrich turns the biblical vision into jet exhausts and whirling propellers on an alien spacecraft.» — The Spaceships of Ezekiel, de 1974, donde el ingeniero de la NASA Josef Blumrich convierte la visión bíblica en escapes de reactor y hélices.

«Plausible or not, such connections related UFOs to the romance of ruins and lost civilizations and promoted aliens from mere tourists to vital participants in human history. The writers who looted archaeological sources and religious texts for evidence of ancient astronauts did much to enlarge the mythic dimensions of UFOs.» — y su juicio sobre esa corriente: promovió al alienígena de turista a participante de la historia humana, y agrandó las dimensiones míticas del ovni.

«If editorialists treated the Kareeta as a joke, the U.S. military had already collected» — el contrapeso al Kareeta: los militares estadounidenses ya tenían reportes de objetos ovales, plateados o autoluminosos antes de 1947.

«reports of unknown oval, silvery, or self-luminous flying objects, and by the summer of 1947 Kenneth Arnold’s nine objects skipping like saucers over Mount Rainier simply added one more case to the list.» — y el punto de llegada del capítulo: los nueve objetos de Arnold solo agregaban un caso más a una lista que ya existía.

«Yet like Fort’s vision, the concepts of ufology provided for a flexible reconstruction of the past and bettered him as a way to adapt present events. So versatile is the understanding of ufology that it does not so much descend from Fort as absorb him,» — la fórmula que le importa: la ufología no desciende de Fort, lo absorbe.

«The “big picture” of Reformation prodigies enlarges into a “theory of everything” in ufology.» — y la escala a la que llega: del cuadro grande del prodigio reformado a una teoría de todo.

«A question posed in a 1960 issue of FSR asked how an alien visitor might act on earth, and a response drew the enigmatic figure of Springheeled Jack into UFO lore. He was a tall, gaunt man dressed in glistening clothing and a metallic helmet who terrorized London for several months in 1837-1838 by bounding out of the darkness and attacking people with clawlike hands.» — cómo entró Spring-heeled Jack a la tradición ovni: por una pregunta de la Flying Saucer Review en 1960.

«Claims that his eyes glowed and his mouth spewed blue fire joined with his superhuman leaping abilities to transport Jack into the realm of the supernatural. He returned several times during the nineteenth century, and similar figures like the 194.4 “Mad Gasser of Mattoon’ (Illinois) have attracted ufologists’ attention as parallels to Springheeled Jack, whose long career has cast him as ghost, devil, aristocrat, villain, and, finally, honorary alien.» — la carrera de esa figura, que Bullard resume por sus papeles sucesivos: fantasma, diablo, aristócrata, villano y por fin alienígena honorario.

«NICAP and other visible collection centers attracted reminiscences of people relieved to find, after years of silence, someone to listen to their strange experiences. One example came from two young male professors at DePauw University who were driving east of Indianapolis in 1923 when they saw an enormous saucer glide across the road and cast a brilliant red light all around. The revolving saucer gave off no sound and vanished suddenly after it moved off to the southwest.» — el reporte retrospectivo de dos jóvenes profesores de la DePauw University sobre un platillo visto en 1923.

«An apparent abduction attempt came to light in 1988 when a seventy-eight-year-old Louisiana woman revealed that while riding with another teenager one night in 1926 they drove into a garage to escape an approaching object like the full moon. It gave off the sound of a running motor, followed by a hiss, as the object sprayed a liquid on top of the building. Unable to breathe, the two girls ran for the house, but the narrator received some of the cold, numbing spray on one arm before she reached the door. The object hovered for a while and the witnesses heard voices, then the object flew off westward. A burning sensation set in the next day when sunlight struck the narrator's arm, and the roof of the garage caught fire where the spray had fallen.» — el caso de Luisiana de 1926, revelado en 1988 por una mujer de setenta y ocho años, con el líquido rociado y la quemadura al día siguiente.

«UFO prehistory came into its own as a topic of serious research in the 1960s when Jerome Clark, Lucius Farish, and other investigators began systematic exploration of original sources. Newspaper searches revealed the enormity of the phantom airship episodes and discoveries of one sighting, one wave after another suggested a vigorous UFO presence before 1947.» — cuándo la prehistoria ovni se volvió investigación seria: en los sesenta, con Jerome Clark, Lucius Farish y otros sobre las fuentes originales.

«Jacques Vallee introduced the Hamilton calf-napping incident in Anatomy of a Phenomenon (1965), and this tale seemed like the smoking gun to prove that old reports dealt with alien spacecraft.» — el papel de Anatomy of a Phenomenon, de 1965, que puso el caso Hamilton como pistola humeante.

«When Gordon I. R. Lore and Harold H. Deneault Jr. opened NICAP’s file of pre-1947 reports in Mysteries in the Skies: UFOs in Perspective (1968), these cases hinted at a grassroots reservoir of personal experiences with far greater depth than the published accounts in newspapers and magazines.» — lo que Mysteries in the Skies, de 1968, insinuó: un depósito de experiencias personales más hondo que lo publicado.

«Under critical examination even the most promising treasures of the past usually pan out as fool's gold.» — la fórmula con que evalúa ese material: bajo examen crítico, oro de tontos.

«Pliny wrote that “a burning shield darted across at sunset from west to east, throwing out sparks,’ in 100 B.c.,”' while the Royal Frankish Annals recorded that in a.p. 776 , when the pagan Saxons stormed a Christian castle, God sent the likeness of two shields, “red with fame wheeling over the church,’ and the Saxons fled in terror.» — los dos casos antiguos que examina: el escudo ardiente de Plinio del año 100 a. C. y los dos escudos rojos de los Anales Reales Francos del 776.

«In 1926 Nicholas Roerich, an explorer, artist, and mystic, was mountain climbing in the Himalayas when his party saw “something big and shiny reflecting the sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp this thing changed in its direction from south to southeast. ... We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly the oval form with a shiny surface, one side of which was brilliant from the sun.» — el avistamiento de Nicholas Roerich en el Himalaya en 1926, citado dentro.

«Though saucerlike in description, meteors probably explain the Roman and Frankish examples. The Roerich party may have sighted a weather balloon released by another expedition in the Himalayas at the same time.» — y las explicaciones convencionales que les asigna: meteoros para los dos antiguos, globo meteorológico de otra expedición para Roerich.

«Holinshed’s Chronicles record a fiery appearance seen in many parts of England during the fall of 1361: Io some it appeared in the likeness of a turning wheel burning; to othersome round in the likeness of a barrel, flashing out flames of fire at the head; to othersome in the likeness of a long burning lance.” When travelers walked alone at night this object would accompany them and stop when they stopped, but it stayed far off when people traveled in groups.» — el caso de las Crónicas de Holinshed del otoño de 1361, con la rueda ardiente, el barril y la lanza según quién mirara.

«According to Naima’s Annals of the Turkish Empire for 1617, a black circular cloud dropped a rain of blood and manifested fiery crosses. Smoke issued from the cloud and then there was a thunderclap of such loudness that cattle in the fields fell to their knees and fled in all directions.» — el caso de los Anales del Imperio Turco de Naima para 1617, con la nube negra, la lluvia de sangre y las cruces de fuego.

«The severest disappointments have accumulated around the airship waves. Ufologists warmed to them because they prefigured modern UFO activity at a time when no earthly technology cluttered the skies to confuse witnesses. A striking continuity became apparent—the moving lights, structured craft, sightings surges, alien associations, animal reactions, ground traces, landings, crashes, and wreckage prefigured modern UFO phenomenology with uncanny prescience.» — por qué las aeronaves prometían tanto: prefiguraban toda la fenomenología moderna en un cielo aún sin tecnología que confundiera.

«The adjustability of the objects proved even more disillusioning. Airships fitted the technological expectations of their era, but gas bags, gondolas, and flapping wings had little in common with UFOs today. Year by year descriptions evolved from airships to airplanes to secret weapons and ghost rockets, but a good flying saucer was hard to find.» — el desengaño mayor: los objetos se ajustaban a la expectativa técnica de su época, y el platillo no aparece.

«Only a scant few published reports break the time barrier; they tell of batwinged dirigibles or ghost fliers, not flying saucers. By contrast, saucers are common in personal recollections from long ago, but these “post facto” accounts are equivocal. The witnesses may have said nothing because saucer-shaped craft made no sense at the time; then again, modern influences may have rewritten memory or planted the suggestion for a saucer tale.» — el estado del material retrospectivo, con las dos lecturas puestas y sin arbitrar: el testigo calló porque el platillo no tenía sentido entonces, o el recuerdo se reescribió después.

«If so many witnesses could be wrong about airships, a shadow of a doubt necessarily falls over all other UFOs. So many saucers after 1947 in contrast with so few before are embarrassing as well; so is the responsiveness of descriptions to the prevailing ideas of the time. These facts argue not for a coherent phenomenon that bridges the ages from ancient Egypt to the morning's news, but for a creation of the social imagination that owes its content to long-term human interests and its form to current imagery.» — la inferencia que saca contra su propio objeto: tantos platillos después de 1947 y tan pocos antes argumentan por una creación de la imaginación social.

«Jerome Clark recognized the difficulties implied by airships as early as the mid-1960s and attempted to save the mystery by including technology as one manifestation of a broader paranormal phenomenon, but hostile critics seized on airships as straightforward examples of a cultural image mirrored in witness reports.*® The airship has stood as a cornerstone of psychosocial opposition to UFOs ever since.» — cómo quedó el asunto en el campo: Clark intentó salvarlo metiendo la técnica en un fenómeno paranormal más amplio, y la aeronave se volvió piedra angular de la crítica psicosocial.

«The ufological history lesson affirms that human interests dominate the aerial mystery narrative. Not unearthly vehicles but mistaken identities or imaginative exaggerations tied to expectations, beliefs, and stereotypes explain most historical accounts.» — la primera lección de su capítulo histórico: el interés humano manda en el relato del misterio aéreo.

«And even if hundreds of chronicles and thousands of old newspapers yield few instances of aerial phenomena that look or act like modern UFOs, the cupboard is not entirely bare.» — la salvedad con que cierra: la alacena no está del todo vacía.

«Ufologists expand the UFO myth by adding various historical puzzles. The disappearance of the Norfolk Regiment at Gallipoli was a genuine unsolved mystery of World War I, but the matter veered into UFO territory in the 1960s when several old soldiers came forward with a startling claim. They said that they watched men of the regiment march into a well-defined cloud or fog bank on the ground.» — el caso del Regimiento de Norfolk en Gallípoli, misterio real de la Primera Guerra que en los sesenta se anexó al expediente ovni.

«Aurora to dig up the body from the 1897 airship crash. These resurrectionists neglected to inform local residents and soon confronted irate, gun-toting citizens who took a dim view of strangers digging up their cemetery, Rumors abounded in the ensuing circus, with mysterious persons said to have robbed the alien grave and an elderly man blaming UFO radioactivity for his rheumatism. No support for the story turned up, but the effort attested to the value that old reports had acquired,» — la excavación de mediados de los setenta en el cementerio de Aurora, con los vecinos armados y los rumores de la tumba alienígena robada.

«Nationwide surveys of the U.S. 1897 and British 1913 waves saw the great airship hope implode into a great letdown of hoaxes and errors.» — y por qué defraudaron las aeronaves: los barridos nacionales de 1897 y 1913 dejaron fraudes y errores.

«But history teaches another lesson worth remembering—humans can be quite accurate observers, sometimes delivering raw phenomenology without intervention of belief, like John of Worcester’s meteor» — la segunda lección de su capítulo histórico, que él subraya: el humano puede observar con exactitud y entregar fenomenología cruda sin intervención de la creencia.

«leaving enough of it to identify, like the aurora of Camerarius or Venus in accounts of the Edison Star. And even if hundreds of chronicles and thousands of old newspapers yield few instances of aerial phenomena that look or act like modern UFOs, the cupboard is not entirely bare.» — y la salvedad con que cierra: aun distorsionando queda bastante para identificar, y la alacena no está del todo vacía.

«while an unusual storm probably explains the Turkish case. And so it goes, with conventional solutions seldom hard to find.» — cómo resuelve el caso turco de 1617, y la regla que de ahí saca para todo el capítulo: la solución convencional rara vez se hace de rogar.

«In some historical accounts a similarity in appearance or activity justifies comparison with current UFOs. Unnatural motions characterize a red meteor that moved to and fro three times over the camp of a Chinese general in A.D. 235.» — Bullard abre su lista corta de casos comparables con el meteoro rojo de movimientos antinaturales sobre un campamento chino del año 235.

«According to Lycosthenes, two suns appeared over Erdford, Germany, in 1520, then a burning in the sky fell to the ground and destroyed many places before returning to the air and taking on a round form.» — los dos soles sobre Erdford, Alemania, en 1520, según Lycosthenes, con el ardor que baja y vuelve a subir tomando forma redonda.

«Too little information undercuts the value of these accounts, but the recurrent appearance of a mysterious Chinese “pearl” offers both detail and one of the most UFO-like claims as the early records have to offer.» — el límite que les pone: hay muy poca información, salvo en el caso de la perla china.

«At some time between 1056 and 1063, wrote the eleventh-century scholar Shen Kua in a book entitled Brush Talks from Dream Brook, a large luminous object began to appear at night in the vicinity of a lake. “The trees cast shadows, exactly as when the sun has just come up. In the distance you saw only a sky reddened as if by a forest fire. All of a sudden it went far off, moving as if in flight, floating over the waves, shining like the sun.» — la perla luminosa que Shen Kua describe en Brush Talks from Dream Brook, con la cita dentro.

«A friend of the author said that the pearl came near one night and opened its door slightly, and from the opening shot a golden ray of light. When fully opened, the door revealed the interior bright with a silvery light, so bright the witness could not look at it directly. For ten years the pearl was a popular tourist attraction, then it was seen no more.» — la puerta que se abre y el rayo dorado, y el detalle que él conserva: la perla fue atracción turística diez años.

«A noteworthy case of anomalous meteors occurred at sea off San Francisco just before sunrise on February 28, 1904. Three crewmen aboard the USS Supply sighted three egg-shaped objects near the horizon and below the clouds. The leader appeared as large as six suns, the second as large as two, and the third the size of one. These bright red objects headed toward the ship in echelon formation then soared up above the clouds, rising out of sight after two minutes of observation.» — el caso del USS Supply del 28 de febrero de 1904, con tres objetos ovoides en formación escalonada.

«The objects were large, the witnesses reliable, and of course no one knew what to expect of UFOs in 1904. A recent critical reexamination proposed that the objects only seemed to fly below the clouds, that in fact three meteors were distant enough to appear low on the horizon, visible in open sky beyond the cloud deck or through breaks in the scattered clouds.» — por qué le importa el caso y cuál es la reexaminación crítica: tres meteoros distantes que solo parecían volar bajo las nubes.

«Bruce Maccabee consulted the log of the Supply in the National Archives and found that the sky was 90 percent covered by stratus clouds. In his analysis he concludes that the objects flew in front of the clouds at an altitude of less than a mile, traveled at speeds too slow for meteors but characteristic of some UFOs, and maneuvered in unmeteoric fashion by actually pulling up into the cloud layer. These “meteors” well deserve their designation as» — el análisis de Bruce Maccabee sobre la bitácora del Supply, con el noventa por ciento de cielo cubierto por estratos y la conclusión de un vuelo por delante de las nubes.

«The hair of the head fell off upon the side which happened to be underneath when the phenomenon occurred, the same side of the body being, in all nine cases, the more seriously injured.» — el detalle que hace al caso: la caída de pelo y las lesiones más graves ocurrieron del lado que quedaba abajo, en los nueve casos.

«No damage befell the house, but trees around it withered suddenly on the same ninth day when the human victims developed sores. The writer said that he had visited the victims in a hospital and the injuries were severe. He attributed them to some sort of electrical phenomenon, while the similarity to supposed UFO-induced injuries in the Cash-Landrum case and others of recent times is striking,» — cómo lo cierra: el cónsul lo atribuyó a un fenómeno eléctrico, y él consigna el parecido con las lesiones del caso Cash-Landrum.

«No attribute attaches more closely to UFOs than their extraterrestrial origin. “UFO” and “alien spaceship” go together like bread and butter or coffee and cream, the little green man with his flying saucer an inseparable combination in 1950s popular imagery and the big-eyed humanoid in a UFO equally familiar today. This marriage of representations might have been made in heaven, but it was not inevitable.» — Bullard nombra la asociación más firme del campo y de inmediato la relativiza: pudo ser hecha en el cielo, pero no era inevitable.

«Popular understanding takes this central idea for granted, and it underlies most cultural representations related to UFOs, but so much unanimity brings its own hazards. No one comes to the subject as a blank slate; no one is innocent of how UFOs are supposed to look and act.» — el peligro de esa unanimidad: nadie llega al tema en blanco ni ignora cómo debe verse y comportarse un ovni.

«This prior knowledge imposes order and imagery on conception, expression, and interpretation, so even when witness evidence joins reasonable inference to support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, its very pervasiveness raises questions of whether the alien attributes are, after all, more mythical than natural and inevitable.» — y la pregunta que de ahí saca, con su matiz: hasta cuando la evidencia apoya la hipótesis, su omnipresencia la vuelve sospechosa de mítica.

«Historical perspectives raise another reason to doubt. Nothing appears more modern—or rather, futuristic—than notions of other inhabited worlds and space-faring aliens, but this appearance is mistaken.» — la segunda razón de duda: lo que parece futurista en la idea de otros mundos habitados no lo es.

«These warnings name abductions but apply equally well to the rest of UFO narratives, and especially so to interpretations like the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It channels a storied heritage of themes about otherworld visitation and marvelous beings from afar into modern UFO thinking, and most features now attributed to extraterrestrials have antecedents or close parallels in other contexts.» — extiende la advertencia de Vallee del relato de abducción a la hipótesis extraterrestre misma.

«Three strands of tradition with beginnings in antiquity deserve close attention—early cosmologies, travelers’ tales, and the doctrine of the plurality of worlds.» — las tres tradiciones que el capítulo va a recorrer: cosmologías antiguas, relatos de viajeros y la doctrina de la pluralidad de mundos.

«If nature abhors a vacuum, so does human thought. Modern scientific concepts scatter space with galaxies, solar systems, and habitable planets; but premodern peoples also envisioned themselves surrounded by a crowded cosmic neighborhood of many tenements and no vacancies.» — la fórmula con que traza el paralelo entre el cosmos poblado moderno y el premoderno.

«The premodern cosmos represents an all-important reserve of order created and maintained for man in the midst of chaos, but sharing in this creation are multiple races of supernatural beings, some physical and some immaterial, some great in power and others small, some benign toward humans and some indifferent, unfriendly, even hostile.» — cómo describe el cosmos premoderno: reserva de orden en medio del caos, compartida con razas múltiples de seres sobrenaturales.

«Flesh and spirit, the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen cohabit the cosmos in their own proper spheres and interact with one another in an intricate network of obligations and possibilities. The result is an extended community of humans and nonhumans never far apart or long out of contact with one another.» — y lo que resulta de esa convivencia: una comunidad extendida de humanos y no humanos siempre en contacto.

«A child’s Sunday school lesson sets God in heaven and the devil underground. As elementary as this spiritual geography may sound, a three-story arrangement of heaven, earth, and hell or the underworld summarizes a cosmographic plan characteristic of the most familiar mythologies.» — el esquema tripartito de cielo, tierra e inframundo como plano común de las mitologías más conocidas.

«The Greek gods inhabit Mount Olympus, while Hades, the home of the dead, is a recess in the earth; Norse myth divides the cosmos into Asgard as home of the gods, Midgard as the earth of mortal humans, and Hel as the underground realm of the dead.» — los dos ejemplos con que lo ilustra: el Olimpo y el Hades, Asgard, Midgard y Hel.

«In one version of ancient Egyptian cosmology, the solar barge of Ra sails the celestial Nile by day and the subterranean Nile by night. In another version, the sky goddess bends over the earth, and Osiris, enthroned beneath it, presides over the dead.» — las dos versiones egipcias: la barca de Ra por el Nilo celeste y el subterráneo, y la diosa del cielo arqueada sobre la tierra con Osiris debajo.

«Various subdivisions of the tripartite scheme multiply the number of otherworlds a cosmos can hold. The Aztecs prescribed twelve heavenly and nine underworld levels, while Babylonians and Hebrews favored seven, derived perhaps from the sun, moon, and five visible planets. Buddhist cosmology elaborates an already complex Hindu structure with innovations like systems of hot hells side by side with cold hells, and minor hells sprouting out» — cómo se multiplican los niveles: doce cielos y nueve inframundos aztecas, siete babilonios y hebreos por los astros visibles, e infiernos calientes y fríos en la cosmología budista.

«Horizontal space introduces another otherworldly dimension. Babylonian belief populated deserts, ruins, and mountains with demons;® Greek mythology described the Fortunate Isles and the Elysian fields; and Celtic literature spoke of the Land of the Living and the Land of the Young, distant islands of paradisiacal beauty and eternal bliss somewhere to the west.» — la dimensión horizontal del otro mundo: demonios babilonios en desiertos y ruinas, las Islas Afortunadas griegas y las tierras célticas del oeste.

«A picture emerges of the supernatural cosmos with every niche filled, of human imagination that lets no potential habitat go to waste. Norse mythology squeezes the frost giants into Jotunheim, at the edge of the world, and assigns the dwarfs to mountains and caverns.» — la regla que extrae: la imaginación no desperdicia hábitat, y mete a los gigantes de escarcha en Jotunheim y a los enanos en montañas y cavernas.

«A readiness to fill every possible corner of the cosmos with otherworlds often proceeds to the point of overcrowding. Some African religions recognize visible and invisible worlds side by side, with physical objects and their spiritual complements always nearby or even overlapping.” In Europe the fairies lived just under the earth, so close that humans had to take care that their wastewater did not offend them.» — el hacinamiento que de ahí resulta, con el detalle doméstico: en Europa las hadas vivían tan cerca que había que cuidar dónde se tiraba el agua sucia.

«Eclectic folk cosmographies pack jumbled conceptual attics and basements full of realms and entities with little respect for place or hierarchy. When interviewed about his cosmological conceptions, Hungarian master tale-teller Lajos Ami described the earth as a flat disk with water above and below and the sky closing on the edges like a tent, while separate suns shone on an upper world and a lower world. Deriving his cosmos from the worldview of folktales, Ami assumed that a land of dragons belonged to the underworld and found room for hell down there as well, “some place next to Dragon Land.» — la cosmografía popular del narrador húngaro Lajos Ami, con el infierno situado junto a la Tierra de los Dragones.

«Obsequens says that in 91 B.c. a golden fireball rolled to the earth, then increased in size and lifted from» — el globo de fuego dorado de Obsecuente, del 91 a. C., que crece y se levanta del suelo.

«Under the title of “Curious Phenomenon in Venezuela,’ Scientific American published a letter from a member of the American consulate describing an event of October 24, 1885.» — el caso de Venezuela del 24 de octubre de 1885, publicado por Scientific American a partir de una carta del consulado estadounidense.

«Other identities might work just as well and certainly did for centuries when signs, natural anomalies,» — el recordatorio de que otras identidades funcionaron durante siglos para lo extraño del cielo.

«Alternate explanations for recent UFOs have included secret weapons, space animals, paranormal manifestations, electric plasmas, earth lights, leftover Nazis, angels or demons, visitors from the future, holograms from space, and aircraft piloted by inhabitants of the hollow earth or lost continents. These contestants lack nothing for imaginativeness, but they rank as distant also-rans at best. In fact, there is really no contest. In popular ideas and in the preponderance of ufological thinking, UFOs are alien spaceships. End of story.» — la lista de identidades rivales modernas —armas secretas, animales del espacio, plasmas, nazis sobrevivientes, ángeles o demonios, visitantes del futuro, la Tierra hueca— y su suerte: quedaron muy atrás.

«Mythic ideas about the» — anuncia las ideas míticas del cosmos como marco del capítulo.

«inhabitants of faraway places, and journeys to the otherworld have set a course for imagination through the ages, while extraterrestrial concepts, now all but inseparable from UFOs, have not strayed far from the same map.» — la tesis del capítulo: el concepto de extraterrestre no se ha alejado del mapa que trazaron esas ideas míticas.

«The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me,” said the philosopher Pascal, in what could stand as an epigraph for the entire history of human relationships with the universe.» — la frase de Pascal que él propone como epígrafe de toda la relación humana con el universo.

«Babylonian ziggurats copied the structure of the world mountain and served as stairways to heaven, with a literalness mocked in the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.» — el zigurat babilonio como copia de la montaña cósmica, y la burla de esa literalidad en el relato de Babel.

«The otherworld landscape typically reflects good and bad extremes. Happy otherworlds embody widely shared mainstays of beauty and pleasure: heaven has streets paved with gold and bright mansions with all unhappiness refined away; Olympus is a place of soft, perpetual light where no rain or chill disturbs the peace of the gods; and the Elysian fields offer cool, luminous meadows where the blessed sing and dance.» — los rasgos comunes del otro mundo feliz: calles de oro, luz perpetua y suave, praderas luminosas.

«A medieval Irish literary tale, The Voyage of Bran, pictures the Celtic otherworld as a land full of beautiful women, fruit-bearing trees, musical birds, and crystalline buildings.” In folk tradition fairies inhabit a verdant subterranean kingdom of unsurpassed beauty where no sun shines and a uniform twilight prevails,» — el otro mundo céltico del Voyage of Bran y el reino subterráneo de las hadas, donde no hay sol y reina un crepúsculo uniforme.

«but in most cases the underworld inverts the qualities of paradise to present a gloomy, dank recess inextricably bound up with death and decay. A typical netherworld appears in the Akkadian story of Ishtar’s decent into the house of the dead, where inhabitants are deprived of light and where “dust is their food, clay their bread.» — la inversión que domina en el inframundo, con la bajada de Ishtar y su fórmula sobre el polvo por comida.

«When Odysseus sails into the underworld, the spirits rustle like dry leaves, shadowy figures devoid of memory or will until they taste the blood of a sacrifice. Then their torpor lifts for a time and the shades lament that even the lowliest life on earth surpasses their afterlife existence.» — la escena homérica de las sombras sin memoria ni voluntad hasta probar la sangre del sacrificio.

«Visions of the otherworld pull out all the stops whenever the afterlife acquires a moral dimension. Zoroastrians meet their good and evil deeds face to face as beautiful or hideous personages, and they accompany these escorts to a blissful paradise or ugly hell.» — cuándo se desatan las visiones: cuando la otra vida se vuelve moral, con las obras zoroástricas hechas persona hermosa u horrible.

«Chinese and Japanese Buddhists have developed colorful versions of hell where fierce demons hammer sinners flat with a huge mallet, drive them into a snake-infested river, or stir them in a pool of fire.» — los infiernos budistas chinos y japoneses, con el mazo, el río de serpientes y la alberca de fuego.

«Medieval Christian theology metes out reward and punishment according to a meticulous system wherein the worthy rise close to God, the wicked funnel downward, and the worst keep company with Satan.” Renaissance artists portray scenes of the last judgment where demons hang, boil, and prod sinners in lurid fire-lit alcoves amid the craggy rocks of underworld caverns.» — el sistema medieval de premio y castigo por altura, y las escenas del juicio final en la pintura renacentista.

«The physical appearance of supernatural entities may be anthropomorphic (humanlike), humanoid (humanlike but with differences), theriomorphic (animallike), chimerical (combinations of several forms), monstrous (grotesque and terrifying), or apparitional (immaterial or shape-shifting).» — la tipología de apariencias con que ordena a los seres del otro mundo, con su término técnico cada una.

«The major gods typically look human, perhaps because visible kinship offers reassurance that the most influential powers are on our side; but human imagination is too restless to settle for monotonous anthropomorphism.» — por qué los dioses mayores son humanos, y por qué no se quedan así: el parentesco visible tranquiliza, y la imaginación es demasiado inquieta.

«Just as good looks go with good behavior among gods, a frightening appearance often marks evil or dangerous spirits. Babylonian demons mix parts of lions, scorpions, and birds of prey to create chimerical monsters. Netherworld inhabitants reflect the dread this region inspires, with Pluto, Persephone, and the Hindu Yama portrayed as gloomy and imposing, while Mictlantecuhtli, the Mesoamerican lord of the dead, displays a terrifying skull-like visage.» — la correlación entre fealdad y peligro, con los demonios quiméricos babilonios y Mictlantecuhtli.

«Some of the most familiar portrayals of otherworld denizens originate with artists of the Italian Renaissance, who assigned their devils animal characteristics, especially bat or moth wings, in addition to the horns and cloven hooves inherited from the satyrs of antiquity. Botticelli amplified the wrongness of his devils by making them hairy and hermaphroditic, some with tails, pig snouts, and tusks, and some with talons for feet, and pigs’ or asses’ ears.» — de dónde vienen las imágenes más difundidas del diablo: del Renacimiento italiano, con las alas de murciélago y los cuernos y pezuñas heredados del sátiro.

«Northern European artists delved even deeper into the fantastic. Albrecht Diirer, Friedrich and Michael Pacher, Matthias Griinewald, and Pieter Bruegel depicted a riotous menagerie of monkeylike imps and strange bird creatures mingled with other forms based on insects or seafood. This tradition of fantastic images reaches its summit in the feverish visions of Hieronymus Bosch, whose countless devils combine human, animal; and inanimate parts into forms of dizzying weirdness. One example out of many from The Last Judgment shows a red-eyed creature with a batlike face, clawed hands and feet, a tail, and a hot stove for a belly.» — los pintores del norte y su cumbre en El Bosco, con la criatura de El juicio final que tiene una estufa por vientre.

«Traditions of fairylike creatures range over a variety of forms, with the Celtic fairy realm hosting tall, beautiful heroic races like the Tuatha de Dannan, shorter trooping and solitary fairies, and tiny nature spirits dear to Victorian painters.» — el abanico de las hadas célticas, de los Tuatha de Dannan a los espíritus diminutos que pintaron los victorianos.

«The selkies appear as seals when at sea but assume human form on land. Less human are the rough and hairy, but hardworking and helpful, brownies and the pixies, with their pointed ears and homely faces. Still other types are mischievous or even dangerous, such as the poltergeistlike bogies, boggles, and pucks.» — el resto del repertorio: selkies, brownies y pixies serviciales, y los traviesos o peligrosos.

«More distant relatives include shape-shifters like the kelpies, which take on the form of a horse to carry their riders to their death in the water, and monsters like the Nuckelavee, a Scottish sea creature with the mouth of a whale and one red eye, which ravages the land whenever it comes ashore.» — los parientes lejanos: los kelpies que toman forma de caballo para ahogar al jinete y el Nuckelavee escocés.

«The most nearly universal entities in world traditions are giants and dwarfs, though preferences seem to favor beings at the short end of the scale.» — los dos tipos más universales, gigantes y enanos, con la preferencia medida por el extremo pequeño.

«Short supernatural beings thrive in folk tradition, like the dwarfish trolls of Scandinavia and the Japanese kappa, a small, scrawny water spirit resembling a cross between a human and a turtle. An indigenous race of dwarfs goes by the name of Menehune in Hawaii and Mmoetia in western Africa, while a researcher found traditions of diminutive land, water, or subterranean beings among 85 percent of 380 native ethnic groups in North and South America.» — el censo que cierra el punto: seres diminutos en el ochenta y cinco por ciento de 380 grupos étnicos americanos.

«Otherworld beings typically have superhuman powers and skills. Gods create the cosmos and preside over the forces of nature as well as all things important to humans—feast and famine, seasons and fertility, sickness and health, love and war, birth and death. Malicious entities are responsible for the evil in the world, and trickster figures like the Norse Loki and Coyote of the American Indians cause discord. Angels and demons serve as agents of higher powers, while fairies may cause sickness and injury or threaten children and livestock. These same beings are capable of invisibility, flight, and deceptive illusion. Where giants are builders, especially on a large scale, dwarfs often act as blacksmiths and have a reputation as skilled craftsmen.» — los poderes que se les atribuyen y su reparto de oficios: gigantes constructores, enanos herreros.

«Isolation is seldom an option in the supernatural cosmos. Its distances are modest, as the sky hangs as close as the treetops and the underworld begins no deeper than a well. Gods and angels fly to earth with wings or arrive by magic; others favor vehicles like Thor, who drives a chariot drawn by two goats amid the storm clouds, or Rama, who can ride aerial chariots or the bird-god Garuda.» — Bullard mide las distancias del cosmos sobrenatural: el cielo cuelga a la altura de las copas y el inframundo empieza a la hondura de un pozo.

«A stubborn faith endures that spirits of the dead escape their graves to pursue unfinished business on earth, and the old Roman custom of opening tombs on special days to release these spirits finds a parallel in the welcome extended to souls returning to their former homes on the Mexican Day of the Dead.» — la costumbre romana de abrir tumbas en días señalados y su paralelo en el Día de Muertos mexicano.

«The boundaries between worlds are permeable and invite trespass, so that meetings with unearthly entities may happen literally just around the corner. Fairies share this world yet appear in it as strangers. They belong to the otherworld and breathe its eerie chill into encounters» — la permeabilidad del límite: el hada comparte este mundo y aparece en él como extraña.

«Though otherworld beings often visit earth, the traffic runs both ways. Humans seldom make a grand entry. Their transportation is usually nothing more remarkable than a ladder, a boat, a dream, or their own two feet, while reasons for the trip may be heroic quests, initiatory ordeals to gain supernatural power, or just plain chance.» — el tráfico en sentido contrario, y lo modesto de los medios: una escalera, una barca, un sueño o los propios pies.

«An almost universal tradition recognizes entry into the afterlife as an otherworld journey that everyone must take. A common belief holds that the deceased must cross some sort of barrier, perhaps a body of water, such as the river Styx, where the ferryman Charon accepts only passengers able to pay the fare, or a gate guarded by a monstrous dog like the Greek Cerberus or the Norse Garmr.» — el viaje que todos hacen, con sus obstáculos: el Estigia y Caronte cobrando el pasaje, y los guardianes Cerbero y Garmr.

«Both Zoroastrians and Christians envisioned a bridge narrow at the center, where the righteous passed easily but the wicked slipped and fell as demons snatched at their heels.» — el puente estrecho al centro, común a zoroástricos y cristianos, con los demonios tirando de los talones del malvado.

«In one Aztec tradition the soul wandered for four years through perilous regions along difficult paths before reaching its final abode. The nature of a man’s death rather than the moral tenor of his life determined where he spent his hereafter, but typical of travel between worlds, he faced obstacles in reaching even this predetermined destination.» — el caso azteca, donde lo que decide el destino no es la moral de la vida sino la forma de la muerte, y aun así hay obstáculos que salvar.

«In another widespread belief, the dead confront a test to determine what quality of afterlife they have earned. The Christian image of a last judgment, where Christ sends the saved to heaven and the damned streaming into hell, represents the most familiar version of a moral reckoning, but the concept is also central in Zoroastrian, Islamic, and Buddhist belief.» — el segundo mecanismo, la prueba, con el juicio final cristiano como versión más conocida.

«No culture elaborated the judgment theme in richer detail than the ancient Egyptians. They envisioned the path of the dead to the otherworld as a complex series of gates with gods or demonic guardians, each requiring the deceased to recite proper ritual texts and to have received the necessary offerings from mourners. This passage climaxed with a weighing of the soul in a balance before Osiris to determine if the soul deserved paradise or destruction.» — el caso egipcio: puertas con guardianes, textos rituales recitados y el pesaje del alma ante Osiris.

«An extensive Judeo-Christian literature previews the afterlife in visionary journeys to heaven and hell. In a-pseudepigraphic elaboration of the passage in Genesis (5:24) that God took Enoch away to heaven, he ascends through various heavens to see the storerooms of the stars and winds, to learn the various ranks of angels, and to meet with God. His angelic guide shows him the torments of the rebel angels, the abode of the dead, and a prevision of the last judgment.» — la ascensión de Enoc en la literatura pseudoepigráfica, con los almacenes de estrellas y vientos y los rangos angélicos.

«Tours of heaven and hell flourished in the Middle Ages as a form of conversion literature, an effort to reform sinners by use of divine scare tactics.» — para qué servían los recorridos medievales del más allá: literatura de conversión por susto.

«The Visions of Tondal tells of a fast-living young knight far along the road to perdition when paralysis seized him at a dinner and he fell down as if dead. His naked soul separated from his body, and his guardian angel escorted him to witness sinners tortured in fires and dark pits at the hands of horrific demons. The tour climaxed with a glimpse of Satan lying on his back and waving multiple legs like some gigantic cockroach at the bottom of hell.» — la visión de Tondal, con el alma desnuda separada del cuerpo y Satanás agitando las patas como una cucaracha gigante.

«Thoroughly frightened by what he saw, Tondal then observed the tribulations of souls serving a term of penance in Purgatory and finally beheld the joys of the righteous in heaven, after which he reentered his body and came back to life a changed man, dedicated for the rest of his days to the well-being of his soul. Tondal’s vision follows a popular literary pattern that culminates with Dante's Divine Comedy.» — el desenlace del patrón: Tondal vuelve al cuerpo hecho otro hombre, y el modelo culmina en la Divina Comedia.

«The process of initiation often includes an otherworld journey, sometimes in the form of symbolic death and rebirth, sometimes in visionary travels to acquire shamanic powers. Nearly all cultures mark important transitions with rites of passage, rituals that lend social meaning to major changes of status or condition such as birth, adulthood, marriage, death, or becoming a healer.» — la iniciación como viaje al otro mundo, por muerte y renacimiento simbólicos o por viaje visionario.

«According to the classic study of anthropologist Arnold van Gennep, these ceremonies “enable the individual to pass from one defined position to another which is equally well defined” through a process of separation, transition, and incorporation.» — la fórmula de Arnold van Gennep, citada textualmente, con sus tres tiempos.

«In Greco-Roman mystery religions the participants descended into a cave then reemerged into the light, mimicking the soul's descent from heaven at birth, and return there when released from the body at death.» — las religiones mistéricas grecorromanas, con el descenso a la cueva mimando el descenso del alma al nacer.

«In other cases initiation is involuntary, beginning with a life-changing supernatural encounter but continuing the ritual pattern, When nine years old and sick with a fever, the Sioux holy man Black Elk saw two men descend from the clouds and summon him to heaven. A small cloud lifted him, and supernatural horses carried him to the teepee of the six Grandfathers, who taught him sacred truths and gave him powers. His spirit returned to his body, and this vision guided him in his adult role as a man able to heal, combat drought, assure a successful hunt, and maintain spiritual harmony between humans and nature.» — la iniciación involuntaria de Alce Negro a los nueve años, con los dos hombres bajados de las nubes y los seis Abuelos.

«The Asian shaman travels between this world and the other in an ecstatic trance, first to gain necessary powers, then to escort souls, appease the spirits of sickness, and communicate with the dead.» — el chamán asiático y sus oficios: ganar poder, escoltar almas, apaciguar espíritus de la enfermedad y hablar con los muertos.

«Another example of the type is the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, where the hero's efforts to rescue his friend Enkidu from death take him on a journey to the end of the earth, across the waters of death, and finally to the immortal sage Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah; but Gilgamesh gains and loses the gift of immortality twice, once because he fails a test to stay awake for seven nights and again when a serpent steals the gift while he bathes.» — el caso de Gilgamesh, que gana y pierde el don de la inmortalidad dos veces.

«Other visits to the otherworld result from kidnap, allurement, invitation, or even accident. An Ojibwa Star Husband tale begins with two girls pointing to the stars they wished to marry before they went to sleep. When the girls awoke, they found themselves in the sky world, where they married the star-men of their wishes and later escaped to earth through a hole in the sky.» — el relato ojibwa del Marido Estrella, donde el viaje resulta de un deseo dicho antes de dormir.

«The medieval story of a boy named Elidurus relates that he was playing hooky from school when he chanced upon an opening in a riverbank and entered to find the fairy kingdom. He came and went daily without the usual negative consequences of contact with fairies. He enjoyed a game played with a golden ball until one day he tried to steal the ball. Once the fairies recovered their property, they sealed the hole and left Elidurus to the displeasure of his schoolmaster.» — el caso de Elidurus, que entraba y salía del reino de las hadas sin daño hasta que intentó robar la pelota de oro.

«A widespread cosmological concept holds that all realms meet at the axis mundi, the center of the world and a nexus for travel between worlds.» — el eje del mundo como concepto cosmológico extendido: centro del mundo y nudo del tránsito entre reinos.

«a pillar or pole that holds up the sky, this center often takes the form of a tall mountain. The Hindu and Buddhist Mount Meru (or Sumeru) stands at the center of the earth, and the heavenly bodies orbit above. Babylonian ziggurats copied the structure of the world mountain and served as stairways to heaven, with a literalness mocked in the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.» — las formas del eje: pilar, montaña —el Meru hindú y budista— y el zigurat babilonio como escalera al cielo, con la burla de esa literalidad en Babel.

«like Yggdrasill in Norse mythology. The world tree may grow out of the earth, while its branches reach into heaven and its roots probe the underworld to tie the cosmos together with a continuous arboreal passageway from realm to realm.» — la variante arbórea del eje, con Yggdrasill: raíces en el inframundo, ramas en el cielo y un pasaje continuo entre reinos.

«Some Egyptian gods combine animal features with human bodies to give Thoth the head of an ibis; Horus, a falcon; and Anubis,» — los híbridos egipcios: Thot con cabeza de ibis, Horus halcón y Anubis chacal.

«The Phoenicians picture Dagon as fishlike, and the Mesoamerican Quetzalcoatl appears both as a human and as a feathered serpent. Hindu deities include the elephant-headed Ganesh and Hanuman, the monkey god, while Shiva waves multiple arms attached to a purely human figure and sometimes presents multiple faces. Wings add exotic appendages to angels, Mesopotamian deities, and the harpies of Greek mythology.» — el resto del catálogo de formas: Dagón pez, Quetzalcóatl serpiente emplumada, Ganesh y Hanuman, Shiva de brazos múltiples, y las alas de ángeles y harpías.

«As they reached a crossroads, there stood three figures in a close group, facing one another in a circle or triangle. These figures were tall and dressed in deep black robes, with their arms hanging down at their sides and their heads bent as if in profoundest sorrow.» — el encuentro del joven irlandés con las tres figuras altas de túnica negra en el cruce de caminos.

«The men gave wide berth to these unnerving figures, and one man soon went his way, leaving the narrator to» — y lo que hicieron los dos hombres: darles ancho margen y separarse.

«In the Islamic tradition of Mohammed's Night Journey, the angel Gabriel leads the prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem and then to heaven and hell. Mohammed meets with Jesus, Moses, Noah, and Abraham» — el Viaje Nocturno de Mahoma con Gabriel por guía, de La Meca a Jerusalén y de ahí al cielo.

«before entering the presence of Allah to learn God's laws and his status as God's chosen prophet. Revealed as well are the delights of paradise for the blessed and the miseries of the wicked in hell.» — y lo que le es revelado en ese viaje: las leyes, su estatus de profeta elegido, y las delicias y miserias del más allá.

«Mortals visit the upper or lower world by their own initiative in the quest story. In the famous example of Orpheus, he descends into the underworld to rescue his dead» — el viaje por iniciativa propia en el relato de búsqueda, con Orfeo bajando por Eurídice.

«wife, Eurydice, persuades the lord of the dead to release her, then loses her again when he violates an interdiction against looking at her before they leave Hades.» — y la interdicción que rompe: mirarla antes de salir del Hades.

«the soul casts it as a small, childlike homunculus without sexual identity.” The Norse dwarfs lived underground, while on the other side of the world, a Tzotzil Indian from southern Mexico expressed a similar view that just under the earth and above the realm of the dead was a land of dwarfs.» — el alma cristiana como homúnculo infantil sin identidad sexual, y el paralelo tzotzil de una tierra de enanos bajo la tierra.

«The enduring appeal of myths challenges narrators to keep their stories up to date, and UFO mythology is no exception. Ancient-astronaut proponents are responsible for perhaps the most conscious effort when they read early cosmologies and cosmogonies as allegories of alien activity.» — Bullard sitúa a los antiguos astronautas como el esfuerzo más consciente por poner el mito al día.

«One is withdrawal of the gods from earth, a story that contrasts the present blighted state of humanity with a primordial age of bliss when gods and humans lived side by side in paradise. Through some error or transgression, man fell from grace and the gods abandoned mankind to suffering, hardship, and mortality.» — el primer tema aprovechable: el retiro de los dioses, con la edad primordial de dicha y la caída por transgresión.

«Wars among the gods suggest the earth as a battleground for interplanetary powers with advanced weaponry. A related theme avers that the act of creation sets off an epic conflict between chaos and cosmos. Myths like Noah's Flood tell that a great catastrophe nearly obliterated mankind and embody an ageless fear that destructive outside powers threaten to overwhelm the world,» — el segundo y tercer tema: las guerras de los dioses como batalla interplanetaria, y el diluvio como miedo eterno a la potencia externa destructora.

«In many ancient narratives the gods meddle in human affairs to help or deceive, save or destroy. An important form of divine intervention is the arrival of the culture hero to teach primitive humanity the skills of civilization.» — el cuarto tema: la intervención divina, con el héroe cultural que enseña las artes.

«Ancient-astronaut writing is an exercise in euhemerism, in which theorists recast the gods of mythological texts as aliens and treat the fanciful events as literal histories of extraterrestrial intervention.» — nombra la operación por su nombre técnico: euhemerismo, con los dioses recastados como alienígenas y el mito leído como historia literal.

«Some myths are almost too suggestive to ignore. In an Egyptian withdrawal story, the sun god Ra once lived on earth and ruled over humans until they began to blaspheme, calling him old and impotent and setting up an ambush to kill him as he sailed along the Nile. His son Horus learned of this plot and attacked the conspirators in the form of a flying disk, dazzling the rebels so that they killed one another. Ra refrained from destroying all humans, but he deserted the earth to sail only the celestial Nile, while the image of a winged solar disk commemorated this event ever after in Egyptian art.» — el mito egipcio del retiro de Ra, con Horus atacando a los conspiradores en forma de disco volador y el disco solar alado que lo conmemora.

«The Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl brought agriculture, building, sculpture, astronomy, and a religion of peace. This mysterious culture-bearer presents an especially intriguing résumé. In one tradition or another he came from heaven; was associated with the planet Venus; had a long beard, unlike native Mesoamericans; and departed after conflict with an evil sorcerer but promised to return.» — el currículum de Quetzalcóatl que hace atractiva su relectura: viene del cielo, se asocia a Venus, lleva barba larga y promete volver.

«If other mythic narratives are less transparent, they still tempt interpreters with rousing accounts and rich detail easy to recast in extraterrestrial terms.» — y su observación general: hasta los mitos menos transparentes tientan al intérprete con detalle abundante.

«An early revision of history based on UFO visitation originated with contactee George Hunt Williamson in the 1950s. He proposed that Venusians introduced advanced civilization to inhabitants of the lost continents Atlantis and Lemuria. As these cultures grew corrupt and their destruction drew nigh, the visitors ferried away the remnant of good earthlings while a few higher beings volunteered to reincarnate as wise teachers and to rehabilitate mankind. Among them was a Venusian leader named Merk, whose spirit returned as pharaoh Tutankhamen; biblical figures Aaron, Ezekiel, and Mark; and the Inca Atahualpa.» — la primera revisión de la historia por visita ovni, del contactado George Hunt Williamson en los cincuenta: venusinos en Atlántida y Lemuria, y el líder Merk reencarnado en Tutankamón.

«In a second historical fantasy Williamson introduced migrants arriving from Sirius and settling into the bodies of apes. These visitors created chimerical animals like centaurs and unicorns, but mixing matter and spirit proved destructive and necessitated a flood to cleanse the earth of these abominations. A second group of aliens, the Wanderers, came to earth and entered the reincarnation cycle to elevate the spiritual consciousness of mankind over time.» — la segunda fantasía de Williamson: migrantes de Sirio metidos en cuerpos de simios, animales quiméricos, diluvio purificador y los Wanderers entrando al ciclo de reencarnación.

«Another speculative writer, Brinsley le Poer Trench (later Lord Clancarty), based his prehistory on biblical mythology in The Sky People (1960). The extraterrestrial Elohim came to earth, and one group among them, the Jehovah, created humans to be their servants and hid this illicit creation in the Garden of Eden, located on Mars.» — The Sky People, de 1960, de Brinsley le Poer Trench: los Elohim extraterrestres y el Edén situado en Marte.

«In Greek mythology the Titan Kronos (Saturn) castrated his father, the sky god Ouranos (Uranus), and became the chief deity. He swallowed his children so they could not supplant him, but the mother of Zeus (Jupiter) saved him, and he grew up to chain his father and rule as king of the gods. Zeus then fought the monster Typhaeus (or Typhon) and a race of giants, striking them down with thunderbolts when they piled mountain upon mountain in an assault on heaven.» — el mito griego que sirve de base a la siguiente relectura: Crono, Zeus, Tifeo y los gigantes apilando montañas.

«An interpreter with a classical orientation, W. Raymond Drake recapitulated this mythological history as successive waves of visitors from different planets. First the Uranids brought a Golden Age, then came the Saturnians to conquer the Uranids. The Titans descended from the Uranids and battled the Jovians when they invaded, with the Titan Prometheus raiding the planet Jupiter to steal nuclear fire. Prometheus civilized the surviving populations on earth, but an invading comet or wandering moon called Typhaeus brought natural disaster throughout the solar system and ended interplanetary visitation. Wars and disasters reduced earth to a primitive state, and recovery has taken thousands of years.» — la relectura de W. Raymond Drake por oleadas de visitantes planetarios, con Prometeo robando el fuego nuclear en Júpiter.

«Those destructive comets and wayward planets appeared as solutions for mythic calamities in the writings of Ignatius Donnelly in the 1880s and Immanuel Velikovsky in the 1950s, so that ancient astronaut writers simply picked up an established revisionist tradition.» — y el linaje de esa operación: Ignatius Donnelly en los ochenta del siglo XIX e Immanuel Velikovsky en los cincuenta, ya la tenían montada.

«It develops further in the books of Zechariah Sitchin, the foremost proponent of ancient-astronaut theories today. In a Babylonian creation myth the indolent old gods had their rest disturbed by the celebrations of their offspring. Tiamat, in the form of a great dragon or sea monster, rose up to destroy the young gods until Marduk killed her and created the earth from pieces of her body.» — el mito babilónico de Tiamat y Marduk sobre el que trabaja Zecharia Sitchin, hoy el principal proponente de los antiguos astronautas.

«Sitchen’s interpretation turns the god Marduk into a stray planet and explains the earth and the asteroid belt as results of a near collision with the planet Tiamat. Marduk swung out of the solar system on an eccentric orbit but returned every 3,600 years. The inhabitants of Marduk, the Nefilim, none the worse for spending thousands of years in the outer darkness, arrived in rocket ships 450,000 years ago to colonize and mine the earth.» — la lectura de Sitchin: Marduk vuelto planeta errante de órbita de 3 600 años, y los Nefilim llegando en cohetes hace 450 000 años; la grafía Sitchen es del impreso.

«In fact, humans proved so good at procreation that they multiplied and attracted the Nefilim, but interbreeding roused the leadership to cleanse the earth with a great flood, though humans survived because Utnapishtim heeded a warning to build an ark. The gods were appalled at the scale of the devastation and taught the arts of civilization to the survivors,» — el diluvio de esa versión como limpieza contra el mestizaje, con Utnapishtim advertido a tiempo.

«but conflicts arose as humans strove for forbidden knowledge. In Sitchen’s tale the Tower of Babel actually describes human effort to duplicate the rockets of the gods until divine intervention overthrows the project.» — y su Torre de Babel: el intento humano de duplicar los cohetes de los dioses.

«The idea of extraterrestrial visitation connects UFOs with the otherworld journey in a superficial sense. In abduction accounts the relationship deepens as multiple elements of the story correspond to elements recited throughout history in the traditional otherworld journey—and with much of the strangeness intact.» — Bullard distingue el enlace superficial del profundo: la visita extraterrestre solo roza el viaje al otro mundo, y la abducción lo repite episodio por episodio.

«Whether reality resembles tradition or tradition informs fiction, or symbiosis of experience and tradition shapes narrative, two sets of texts, one about UFO abduction and one about the supernatural otherworld, share sometimes striking parallels.» — y deja abiertas las tres explicaciones posibles del parecido, sin escoger entre ellas.

«Entity types differ little between the two sets of texts, with the Space Brothers and tall, blond, blue-eyed Nordics of some abductee accounts similar in kind to the beautiful gods and noble fairies of the past. Short humanoid aliens predominate in UFO encounters, just as diminutive supernatural beings dominate the fairy population.» — el primer cotejo, de personajes: los Hermanos del Espacio y los Nórdicos frente a los dioses hermosos, y el humanoide bajito frente a la población de hadas.

«Sometimes the resemblance amounts to more than looks. The distinction between UFO occupants and fairies stretches thin in abductee Betty Andreasson’s account of a walk in the woods when she was a young girl. A short being like the aliens she would meet later in life rose out of the ground, dressed not in the sleek uniform of a space traveler but in the greenish, barklike attire of an earth spirit.» — el caso donde la distinción se adelgaza: el ser que Betty Andreasson vio de niña iba vestido de corteza verdosa, como espíritu de la tierra.

«The apparitional creatures of folklore have a penchant for household invasion. Demons waken sleeping monks, and evil spirits burst into Eskimo dwellings, just as humanoid aliens enter bedrooms in the dead of night.» — el segundo cotejo: la irrupción doméstica, con demonios que despiertan monjes y espíritus que entran en viviendas esquimales.

«Not only the actors but the plot of the story closely parallels traditional antecedents. Eight potential episodes characterize most abduction reports in the literature— capture, examination, conference, tour, journey, theophany, return, and aftermath. Few reports include all eight possibilities, but those episodes that appear follow this order with surprising consistency.» — los ocho episodios posibles del relato de abducción, que rara vez aparecen todos y casi siempre en ese orden.

«Expressed in general terms the abduction story repeats the initiatory pattern of separation from this world to an alien environment, where the subject undergoes an ordeal and teachings, then returns a changed person with special knowledge and powers.» — la fórmula general: separación, ordalía y enseñanza, y regreso transformado con saber y poderes.

«A table of comparisons reveals the correspondence of abduction plot and incidents with accounts of shamanic initiation, tours of hell, judgment of the dead, and visits to fairyland.» — las cuatro series contra las que arma su tabla: iniciación chamánica, recorrido del infierno, juicio de los muertos y visita al país de las hadas.

«The appearance of a UFO, a light, or strange beings in the bedroom marks the onset of abduction. An estrangement of the environment or “Oz Factor” accompanies this stage as crickets and night noises fall silent or normal traffic seems to cease, as if the abduction takes place in a vacuum.» — el arranque de la captura y el silencio del entorno que la acompaña, llamado Oz Factor.

«Mental and physical alterations steal over the abductees as they drive off the highway for no good reason. Bedroom abductees hear hypnotic drones or musical sounds and report a creeping numbness that leaves them paralyzed.» — las alteraciones que siguen: la salida de la carretera sin motivo, el zumbido hipnótico y el entumecimiento que paraliza.

«Once the aliens appear, they are always in total charge. The abductee feels dreamlike, groggy, with a sense of euphoria alternating with fear, no longer able to resist. Aliens escort, carry, or levitate—sometimes in the literal sense of floating or flying in a beam of light—the captive to a UFO.» — el traslado, con la euforia alternando con el miedo y la levitación literal en un haz de luz.

«Many otherworld journeys also start with alterations of consciousness. Tondal passed out and remained in a deathlike coma while his soul toured hell. The shamanic candidate often begins initiation during a feverish delirium, and some altered state of consciousness—trance, sleep, sickness, or spell—typically opens the doorway to another world.» — el cotejo del arranque: Tondal en coma y el candidato chamánico en delirio febril, con el estado alterado como puerta.

«Aboard the UFO, abductees enter a domed, luminescent room and lie naked on a slablike table or bed as the examination begins. This episode is the most vivid and common onboard experience.» — el examen a bordo como el episodio más vívido y frecuente del repertorio.

«A little imagination translates this scenario into a time of close contact with an extraterrestrial» — y su traducción alienígena: el retiro de los dioses vuelto contacto estrecho con una civilización extraterrestre.

«civilization, when technology provided abundance until some rupture caused the aliens to depart and leave mankind to fend for itself.» — y el resto de esa traducción: la técnica proveía abundancia hasta que una ruptura hizo marcharse a los visitantes.

«Aliens converge with traditional deathbed spirits in an informant's report that a figure descended the stairs from his mother’s bedroom» — el tercer cotejo, con la figura que bajó la escalera del cuarto de su madre en el momento en que ella murió, en 1937.

«Serpent People discovered the innocent humans and taught them secrets, and as a consequence the humans became independent-minded, while the Jehovah became angry. Flown back to earth aboard Noah's Ark, the humans interbred with the Serpent People but retained the bestial human as part of their nature. When humans attempted to reconstruct their former paradise on Atlantis, conflict arose between agrarian and technological factions, and warfare between them led to the climactic disaster of the Deluge. Kept since in a state of quarantine, the former extraterrestrial masters of mankind have intervened to help the noble elements of human nature triumph over the base, with the modern visitation of flying saucers being the latest episode.» — el resto de la prehistoria de le Poer Trench: el Pueblo Serpiente, el Arca, la Atlántida partida entre agrarios y tecnológicos, el Diluvio y una cuarentena que dura hasta hoy.

«lesser gods, the Annunaki, performed menial labor until a rebellion spurred the leadership to create a hybrid race of humans to serve as slave laborers. In an event that became known as the Fall, humans discovered that they could procreate and live a life independent of their creators.» — el resto de la historia de Sitchin: los Annunaki en el trabajo penoso, la rebelión y la raza híbrida de esclavos, con la Caída releída como descubrimiento de la procreación.

«being like this one before, but he recognized its face again fifty years later in the alien staring out at him from the cover of Whitley Strieber’s Communion.» — el remate del caso: cincuenta años después el informante reconoció esa cara en la portada de Communion.

«impersonal alien examiners apply handheld instruments and scan the captive with an eyelike device. Some procedures are gruesome, like the insertion of a tiny implant into the brain or spine, a long needle into a woman's abdomen, or a probe into the anus. The beings may collect samples, most often sperm or eggs.» — Bullard detalla el examen de abducción: instrumentos de mano, el aparato de escaneo con forma de ojo, el implante, la aguja y la sonda.

«Sometimes the beings replace something in a woman's uterus, and she soon manifests signs of pregnancy. Before the fetus comes to term, the aliens return and remove it. The aliens show an interest in human behavior and emotions that is second only to their interest in reproduction.» — el episodio del embarazo interrumpido, y el orden de intereses que atribuye a los seres: reproducción primero, conducta y emoción después.

«A huge-eyed alien stares into the abductee's eyes at very close range, seeming to scan the captive's mind and perhaps to read thoughts or insert new ones. Mental or emotional tests and staging procedures may follow, in which the aliens create illusions in an apparent study of human response to scenes ranging from everyday family relationships to situations of extreme danger.» — la mirada de ojos enormes que parece leer o insertar pensamientos, y las pruebas emocionales con ilusiones montadas.

«Tondal does not suffer the physical tortures of the damned, but tourists in hell suffer vicariously as they witness enthusiastic devils inflict torments on imprisoned sinners. The Egyptian weighing of the soul scenario casts the deceased as an anxious onlooker closely watched by a monstrous creature who devours any soul that fails the test.» — las otras dos series del cotejo: el turista del infierno que sufre por vicario y el difunto egipcio vigilado por la criatura que devora al reprobado.

«Instruments are as much a part of the otherworld ordeal as they are part of UFO examination procedures. The shaman’s demons use knives, while devils in hell favor crude prods and piercing instruments. The Egyptian balance for weighing souls is more sophisticated; it appears as well in Renaissance Christian art, where angels determine who is saved and who is damned, but once again a mechanical device serves as a central prop for examination of human subjects.» — el instrumento como pieza común de las dos series: cuchillos de demonios, picas de diablos y la balanza egipcia, que reaparece en el arte cristiano.

«Alien interest in reproduction and breeding of hybrids has wide parallels in beliefs about the otherworld—for example, fairies also need human help to give birth, interbreed with humans, and replace human children with changelings.» — el cotejo del híbrido: las hadas también necesitan ayuda humana para parir, se cruzan con humanos y dejan cambiados.

«In traditional otherworld journeys the balance leans toward education as central to the traveler's transition from old state to new. The shamanic candidate is physically reborn or remade, but much preparation for his career as a practitioner of sacred arts comes from instruction by tutelary spirits. They teach him the skills and spells he will need to carry out his magical duties, though he too may have to await maturity before he can practice what he has learned.» — el cotejo de la enseñanza: los espíritus tutelares instruyen al chamán en oficios y conjuros.

«The tour of hell is foremost a learning experience, a reminder of God's laws and the fate of those who disobey. The transformational experience underlying shamanic initiations, exemplary journeys, and judgment of the dead centers around an encounter with the self, a revelatory epiphany as subjects gain awareness of themselves and their place in the divine scheme of things.» — el recorrido del infierno como lección, y el núcleo común de las tres series: un encuentro revelador con uno mismo.

«In these cases the learning occurs within a sacred context; the rarity of overtly sacred teachings in abduction reports conforms to the modern secular spirit and the technological setting of the encounter, but the convergence of all these experiences on a transcendental lesson is unmistakable.» — y la diferencia que marca: la escasez de enseñanza sagrada explícita en la abducción responde al espíritu secular moderno.

«The double-dealing of aliens has ample antecedents, with Satan’s stint as the subtle serpent of Eden serving as the prototype of devils as deceivers.» — el antecedente del doble juego alienígena: Satanás como serpiente sutil del Edén.

«Demons try to intimidate or mislead otherworld travelers, but a guide protects the human, just as the alien leader serves as an intermediary between the abductee and the unfeeling crewmembers.» — el paralelo del guía protector: el ángel frente a los demonios y el líder alienígena frente a la tripulación insensible.

«The major trickster figures of mythology overturn social norms and bring creative change to the cosmos. If aliens operate on a more modest scale, their subtle deceptions, mind tricks, and apparent “haunting” of abductees nevertheless mark extraterrestrials as improper guests similar in spirit to tricksters.» — la comparación con el trickster, hecha a su escala: el alienígena opera más modestamente y aun así es huésped impropio.

«Three less common episodes of tour, journey, and theophany may follow the abductee’s conference. Sometimes the tour is a sightseeing trip to the engine room or a look at a star map. In other cases abductees visit an incubatorium, a room with tanks containing tiny fetuses floating in liquid. Women may meet a hybrid child, half human and half humanoid alien, and learn that this child grew from her stolen fetus.» — los tres episodios menos frecuentes, con el incubatorio de fetos en tanques y el niño híbrido.

«On rare occasions the abductee witnesses some kind of sacred ritual among the aliens or has a religious experience during the abduction. A British family saw an aged alien holding a glowing sphere called the “seed of life’ and felt the life ebb from it, learning that a similar disaster had befallen the aliens’ home world. Betty Andreasson witnessed a giant phoenix consumed by fire in the alien subterranean otherworld and heard a voice she took to be the voice of God.» — las dos teofanías que cita: la esfera llamada semilla de vida de una familia británica, y el fénix consumido por el fuego que vio Betty Andreasson.

«The tour and journey episodes revive the most wonderful sights of traditional otherworld journeys. Shamanic initiation requires travels underground, across the surface of the earth, and into the sky, while the deceased Egyptian passes through numerous gates before reaching the subterranean hall of judgment. Tondal sees Satan in the lowest chamber of hell—in effect the engine room of the infernal regions—then visits purgatory and heaven.» — el cotejo del recorrido, con Satanás al fondo del infierno leído como la sala de máquinas de la región infernal.

«The uniform lighting of the UFO examination room reappears on a larger scale in the bright but sunless alien underworld, while similar conditions characterize the luminous cave where the shaman learns magical secrets, the divine light of Tondal’s heaven, or the twilit sky of fairyland and the Elysian fields. The beautiful crystalline architecture of the Celtic otherworld returns in Betty Andreasson’s descriptions of alien glasslike towers and a forest made of crystal.» — el cotejo de la luz sin fuente y de la arquitectura de cristal, del otro mundo céltico a las torres que describió Betty Andreasson.

«By the time the abductee departs from the UFO a bond may have grown with the alien leader, and abductees sometimes express sadness that the experience is over. A few abductees attempt to bring home a souvenir, but the aliens remain too vigilant ever to have lost an artifact.» — el vínculo con el líder al despedirse, y el detalle que él subraya: nunca se ha perdido un artefacto.

«After farewells, hints to forget, and a promise to return, the aliens escort the abductee back to bed or car, and the UFO flies off while the abductee drifts off to sleep or resumes driving. Drivers may go on for miles before becoming aware of their surroundings, and by then the “missing time” phenomenon has set in as all memories back to the early stage of the abduction fade away to leave only an uneasy sense that something happened and an unaccountable loss of two hours or so.» — el regreso y la instalación del tiempo perdido, con el recuerdo desvaneciéndose hasta dejar solo una inquietud.

«The time lapse motif stands out as a striking element in both abduction and traditional lore, though the “supernatural lapse of time” in fairyland bears only a remote analogy to the “missing time” of abductees. Visitors to fairyland suffer no loss of memory but return to earth, where tens or hundreds of years have passed in a day or a year of fairy time. A break in the continuous and universal flow of time characterizes both situations, but they diverge on the nature and consequences of that break.» — aquí corta el paralelo: el lapso sobrenatural del país de las hadas no es el tiempo perdido del abducido, porque el visitante no pierde la memoria.

«How noteworthy the similarities can be between fairy and UFO encounters stand out in a Welsh account published in 1896, taken from the mother of a minister. She described that as a young woman she walked home one evening with her servant, David Williams, better known as Big David. He carried a side of bacon and fell behind, but she was surprised when three hours passed before he arrived. He was equally surprised that he was more than three minutes behind her, but had a reason:» — el caso galés publicado en 1896 que le parece más elocuente: David Williams, el Gran David, y las tres horas que él contó por minutos.

«Abductions serve as learning experiences when the staring procedure instills knowledge, or when a discussion, formal conference, or presentation of images follows the examination. The aliens warn against harmful human practices and prophesy catastrophes. They also sometimes charge abductees to help avoid or mitigate the ca» — la conferencia como episodio de aprendizaje: advertencias contra prácticas dañinas y profecías de catástrofe.

«tastrophe or to assist in a rescue operation, though they will recall the details of this mission only “when the time is right.» — y la misión que se encarga, con la cláusula que la aplaza: los detalles se recordarán cuando sea el momento.

«this episode is tainted with suspicions that the aliens are deceitful, their» — la sospecha que acompaña a ese episodio.

«teachings manipulative, and their prophecies false; but a growing number of abductees view knowledge imparted by their captors as the true heart and soul of the encounter.» — y la lectura contraria, que él consigna sin arbitrar: para un número creciente de abducidos ese saber es el corazón del encuentro.

«Most abduction events occur inside a UFO, but sometimes the aliens fly their captive on a brief trip to some otherworldly location. Little flight time elapses before arrival at a devastated, desert planetary surface with a feeble sun and sparse, sickly vegetation or a lush» — el primero de los dos paisajes del viaje: la superficie planetaria devastada de sol débil y vegetación enferma.

«and beautiful environment, sometimes enclosed or subterranean, with a well-lighted sky but no visible sun. Beautiful cities or geometric structures occupy the landscape, and crystal often serves as building material.» — y el segundo: el entorno exuberante y subterráneo, de cielo iluminado sin sol, con ciudades y edificios de cristal.

«A closer parallel appears in a legend of a Welsh witch stealing a church bell when a waterman sees her rowing away. She said to him, “You will speak of it when you think of it,» — el paralelo que sí acepta para el olvido: la leyenda galesa de la bruja que se lleva la campana y le dice al barquero que hablará de ello cuando lo piense.

«forgot the theft. Years later when church bells tolled for the funeral of another witch, the memory returned to him.» — y el desenlace de esa leyenda: el recuerdo vuelve al doblar las campanas por el funeral de otra bruja.

«The immediate aftermath of abduction is largely physical and transitory. Abductees describe thirst, sunburn, nosebleed, scars, eye irritation, gastrointestinal upset, a missing pregnancy, and a sense of being dirty or contaminated.» — Bullard ordena las secuelas de la abducción por plazos, empezando por las físicas e inmediatas.

«Intermediate effects of a psychological nature set in days or weeks later as general anxiety, hypervigilance, vivid recurrent nightmares, and an obsessive desire to return to the site of a UFO sighting may afflict the abductee.-Certain suggestive settings like a doctor's office or sights like an alien face may result in disproportionate panic reactions.» — las secuelas intermedias, psicológicas, con el pánico desproporcionado en el consultorio médico.

«Abductees often report increased psychic abilities and further paranormal experiences involving apparitions, poltergeist activity, or Men in Black. Though a single abduction may qualify as the adventure of a lifetime, many abductees experience a whole lifetime of abductions starting in childhood and lasting into old age, while abduction may run in the family, with several generations reporting encounters.» — las secuelas paranormales que se reportan, y el carácter familiar y vitalicio que muchas veces toma la experiencia.

«Supernatural otherworld journeys also end with transformational consequences. Abductees may return fearful and troubled, and the strain has led to mental breakdown or suicide in a few cases.» — el cotejo de las secuelas, con el lado oscuro dicho sin suavizar: en algunos casos hubo crisis mental y suicidio.

«Negative consequences may afflict the otherworld traveler as well. A captive brought back from fairyland may pine away for the beauty of the place, and victims taken and returned by the Wild Hunt are often demented.» — las secuelas negativas del otro lado: el cautivo que se consume añorando el país de las hadas y el devuelto por la Cacería Salvaje.

«Encounters with the supernatural often result in injury. A glimpse of La Llorona may cause fainting and sickness, and striking a ghostly light can result in a paralyzed arm. Among the Navajo a healing ritual is necessary for recovery from ghost sickness, an affliction of fainting, delirium, nightmares, and terrors in the night that follows the sight of a ghost.» — las lesiones del encuentro sobrenatural: el desmayo ante La Llorona, el brazo paralizado, y la enfermedad de fantasma navajo con su ritual de curación.

«For all the hardship along the way, traditional otherworld journeys end in successful transformation when the candidate becomes a practicing shaman, Tondal reforms his sinful ways, or the dead reach paradise.» — el desenlace positivo del viaje tradicional: el chamán ejerciendo, Tondal enmendado, el muerto en el paraíso.

«Many abductees share a similar positive prognosis as they report changes for the better, not a turn toward conventional or even New Age religion but toward a humanistic spiritual awareness of global—or cosmic—responsibility, duty to others, and rejection of materialistic obsessions,» — el pronóstico positivo del lado moderno, con su precisión: no un giro a la religión convencional ni New Age, sino a una conciencia espiritual humanista.

«Some interpreters relate abduction to initiation and see abductees as reborn into the next generation of consciousness, the new shamans to heal the psychic crisis of modern times and lead all mankind to spiritual awareness.» — la lectura más ambiciosa que registra: el abducido como el nuevo chamán que sanaría la crisis psíquica moderna.

«Such breathtaking visions pull emotions along even as they leave evidence behind, but they recognize the religious overtones of otherworld contact in both its past and present forms. To dismiss UFO abductions on the grounds that they are like traditional otherworld journeys goes too far, but without a doubt the old and new versions share much in common.» — su juicio final sobre el cotejo, con las dos mitades: descartar la abducción por parecerse al viaje tradicional va demasiado lejos, y el parecido es innegable.

«Alongside the supernatural tradition of otherworlds in antiquity, a secular tradition of marvelous lands with exotic inhabitants grew up in the form of travelers’ tales.» — abre la segunda tradición del capítulo: la secular de tierras maravillosas con habitantes exóticos.

«Ranking as the prototypical traveler's tale, Homer's Odyssey recounts the years Odysseus spent wandering among mysterious lands and strange beings as he tried to sail home after the Trojan War. He meets the Lotus Eaters, people whose diet leaves them in a blissful stupor; the Sirens, mermaids whose song lures sailors to destruction; the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants without laws or manners and hungry for human flesh; and Circe, a witch who turns Odysseus's crew into swine.» — la Odisea como prototipo del género, con los lotófagos, las sirenas, los cíclopes y Circe.

«Odysseus encounters extremes of strangeness in places, beings, customs, and powers once he leaves behind the known world, and this sense that anything goes, that the world beyond the bounds of the familiar must be fraught with wonders and dangers, has continued to set standards for concepts of the alien throughout history.» — y la regla que de ahí extrae: fuera del mundo conocido todo vale, y eso ha fijado el estándar de lo alienígena.

«Travel tales specialize in escape from both the physically and the conceptually ordinary. Distance works its charm by casting travelers into unfamiliar space where possibilities of difference run riot. Remoteness warrants strangeness, and the farther travelers range from their cultural center, the more outlandish the tale can be.» — la ley del género, dicha en una fórmula: la lejanía autoriza la extrañeza.

«The quest of Gilgamesh takes him to the scorpion men who guard the portal where the morning sun emerges, to an earthly paradise full of gemstones and fruit trees, and to the waters of death and the source of eternal life. The Phoenician admiral Hanno sails beyond the Pillars of Hercules and piles up a list of weird phenomena as he passes along the African coast—phantom music, a flaming river, sea monsters, and hairy men—until too much weirdness unnerves his crew and he has to turn back.» — los dos ejemplos antiguos: Gilgamesh entre los hombres escorpión, y el almirante fenicio Hanón acumulando rarezas hasta que la tripulación se asusta.

«The premise of venturing into unknown territory enables authors around the world to stage one amazing encounter after another. A popular form of Eskimo folktale follows the wanderings of a traveler from one village after another where something is strange about the inhabitants—here they are all left-handed, there they are cannibals, farther along they each have one long and one short leg.» — el cuento esquimal de aldeas sucesivas, cada una con algo raro en sus habitantes.

«Such stories can go on and on as the narrator strings episodes together to hold his listeners with a continuing parade of exotic encounters.®° If more sophisticated in form, adventure tales from Jason and the Argonauts and Sinbad the Sailor to Star Trek also rely on a succession of wonders to refresh the interest of the audience.» — y el mecanismo que comparten con Jasón, Simbad y Star Trek: la sucesión de maravillas que renueva el interés.

«The well-traveled ancient Greeks stocked their literature with exotic news about distant lands. Herodotus fills the remotest regions of the earth with one-eyed people, bald people, goat-footed people, and griffins guarding treasures of gold.» — las razas de Heródoto: tuertos, calvos, de pies de cabra, y grifos guardando oro.

«The Roman writer Pliny the Elder devoted a chapter of his encyclopedic Natural History to monstrous inhabitants of faraway geographic regions, among them the Ethiopian Troglodytes (cave dwellers) and the Libyan Blemmyae, headless people with faces on their chests.» — el capítulo de Plinio el Viejo sobre habitantes monstruosos, con los trogloditas etíopes y los blemios libios.

«Plinian monsters reappeared as requisite figures in medieval travel literature whether or not a traveler actually visited the lands he claimed. Marco Polo describes a genuine journey through the vast empire of Kublai Khan between 1271 and 1295, and if most of the marvels are natural ones, the savage dog-headed people and cannibals also return.» — la persistencia de los monstruos plinianos hasta en un viaje real como el de Marco Polo.

«Sir John Mandeville wrote his Travels in 1356, and the book became one of the most popular of the Middle Ages, though the author never seems to have strayed from the comfort of his writing desk. Borrowing from one source after another, Mandeville retailed familiar fabulous accounts of monsters, wealth, and beauty.» — el caso de Mandeville, cuyos Travels de 1356 fueron de los más leídos de la Edad Media sin que el autor saliera de su escritorio.

«When European explorers reached the New World, they found abundant natural wonders but also colonized the new lands with the usual cannibals and Amazons and sought traditional otherworldly treasures in El Dorado and the Seven Cities of Cibola. The efforts of Ponce de Leon to find the Fountain of Youth simply extended the search for a stock feature of the earthly paradise from the Old World to the New.» — cómo el Nuevo Mundo se pobló con el mismo repertorio: caníbales, amazonas, El Dorado, Cíbola y la Fuente de la Juventud.

«Exotic peoples relocated northward when Olaus Magnus wrote about Pygmies in Greenland, where in another remote corner of the world they battled flocks of cranes, just as their kindred did in Libya and India.» — el traslado al norte con Olaus Magnus, que puso pigmeos en Groenlandia peleando con grullas como sus parientes de Libia y la India.

«The Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas, some parts of it written as early as the third century B.c., catalogs a menagerie of monstrous races inhabiting regions beyond the bounds of Chinese culture. The little people, one-eyed people, hairy people, three-handed people, bird-headed people, and one-armed people of the Chinese collection demonstrate its writers pursuing similar paths of the imagination as European authors.» — el Clásico de montañas y mares chino y su catálogo de razas, que él lee como el mismo camino de la imaginación que el europeo.

«The otherness of a distant place enhances its desirability but offsets the appeal with awareness that the physical and social landscapes are alien, so that the traveler stands naked and vulnerable before the unknown.» — el saldo del encanto de la distancia: deseo y desnudez a la vez ante lo desconocido.

«An otherworld may be a place of beauty and marvels but never a paradise free for the taking. Monsters of story and imagination guard faraway places and threaten any interlopers. These inhabitants are nonhuman, often bizarre, probably dangerous.» — la regla que no falla: el otro mundo nunca es paraíso de libre acceso.

«Travelers’ tales caution that “they” are not like “us” but alien in customs, manners, and appearance, so that whether visiting the cannibal or being visited by spacemen in science fiction, the lesson persists that humans have something to fear when they meet the alien» — la lección que atribuye al género entero: ellos no son como nosotros, y hay algo que temer del Otro.

«The most noteworthy aftereffects take shape in the long term, months or years later when abductees give up smoking or discover artistic talent, become more spiritual and open-minded, perhaps seek out jobs that allow creative expression or helping other people» — las secuelas de largo plazo, que él llama las más notables: dejar de fumar, descubrir talento artístico, buscar oficios de expresión o de ayuda.

«Travelers arrived by conventional means and faced barriers of hardship and distance rather» — la diferencia con la tradición sobrenatural: el viajero llega por medios comunes y las barreras son de penuria y distancia, no de magia.

«than magic; but if the stories fashioned faraway places to a human scale and confined them to earthly space, the descriptions suffered no impoverishment in wonder.» — y lo que no cambia: aunque el relato ponga esos lugares a escala humana y en espacio terrestre, no pierde maravilla.

«The expedition to India of Alexander the Great discovered a parade of wonderful races like the Cynocephali, hairy dog-headed people who lived in the mountains and communicated by barking; the Panotii, who could wrap themselves in their enormous ears or even use» — las razas de la expedición de Alejandro: los cinocéfalos que se comunican ladrando y los panotios de orejas enormes.

«them to fly; and the Sciopoda, who lay on their backs and shaded themselves by raising their huge feet like a parasol.» — y los esciápodos, que se dan sombra levantando sus pies enormes como parasol.

«The future of monsters seemed to belong in the inner psyche as Jack the Ripper and Hitler replaced the uncharted with the unhinged, though many people found the jetsam of this inner tide unsatisfying and continued to yearn for a literal and external Other, finding homes for all sorts of Bug-Eyed Monsters in the endless distances of outer space.» — Bullard describe el traslado del monstruo: de lo inexplorado a lo desquiciado, con Jack el Destripador y Hitler, y de ahí al espacio exterior.

«If habitats and modes of travel have changed and expanded outward beyond the earth, the power of distance to loosen restraints and harbor exemplary otherness thrives in popular depictions of extraterrestrials, though the principles have not changed much for envisioning otherworldly places and their occupants.» — y su tesis sobre ese traslado: cambian los hábitats y los medios, no los principios con que se imagina al ocupante.

«A third ancient tradition was a belief that the celestial bodies were not just planets, moons, and stars, but worlds, complete habitats suitable for life like the earth. This doctrine of the plurality of worlds insisted that every body in the universe was populated, and the idea flourished as late as the mid-nineteenth century.» — la tercera tradición del capítulo: la doctrina de la pluralidad de mundos, viva hasta mediados del siglo XIX.

«Pluralism was philosophical rather than observational and depended on a line of reasoning such as the Epicureans proposed: They argued that all matter consists of atoms and atoms are infinite in number. With infinite atoms come infinite possibilities for atoms to combine and build larger bodies until the universe fills with a multitude of worlds, some like and some unlike our own, inhabited by creatures like and unlike ourselves.» — el argumento epicúreo del que depende: átomos infinitos, combinaciones infinitas, mundos innumerables.

«Central to the case for habitation was the concept of plenitude. It holds that every possibility of being will necessarily be fulfilled, that the existing universe will reflect all possibilities for existence, and that the universe grows better as the abundance of existing things increases.» — el principio de plenitud, del que la habitación se sigue: toda posibilidad de ser se cumple.

«Philosophers also pondered the moral and mental attributes of otherworld inhabitants. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued that God had created the best of all possible universes and that its goodness included the existence of all beings that could possibly exist. Whether earth was the best of all possible worlds was doubtful, since it is possible to imagine worlds where the inhabitants have never sinned. Earth could be the worst world in the best possible universe, and neighbors nearer to perfection than ourselves might surround us.» — el argumento de Leibniz y su consecuencia incómoda: la Tierra podría ser el peor mundo del mejor universo posible.

«Less whimsical was Cosmotheoros (1698) by Christian Huygens, a leading astronomer of his day, whose reasoning combined philosophy and theology with ideas that have shaped discussions of otherworld beings down to the present. According to Huygens, other planets must have rational beings to appreciate creation and adore the Creator. Like humans, these beings would need senses, fire, and tools, hands to build, an upright posture, and the curiosity to study nature. This study would lead them to astronomy, mathematics, and writing.» — el razonamiento de Huygens: el habitante racional necesitaría sentidos, fuego, herramientas, manos y postura erguida, y llegaría a la astronomía y la escritura.

«And since the laws of mathematics and music are everywhere the same, these arts are alike on every world. A covering of wool or feathers might protect aliens in their native climate, and they might be larger than humans but not so tiny that they lacked the strength to work. The inhabitants of other planets need not look like us, and might be ugly by our standards, yet still seek truth, practice virtue, and possess a rational soul.» — y su conclusión, que él dice que ha moldeado la discusión hasta hoy: podrían ser feos para nuestro gusto y aun así buscar la verdad y tener alma racional.

«Pluralism entered as standard intellectual furniture for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century thinkers. It shaped the expectations of leading astronomers like William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 and concluded from observations of the melting polar caps on Mars that the inhabitants “probably enjoy a situation in many respects similar to ours.’ He even argued that beings lived on the surface of the sun, shielded from the heat of its luminous atmosphere by an insulating layer of opaque clouds.» — el pluralismo de William Herschel: casquetes marcianos que se derriten y habitantes en la superficie del Sol, protegidos por nubes opacas.