Society for the Scientific Investigation of Anomalous Atmospheric and Radar Phenomena MUFON-CES, Inc.

Goals and Activities of MUFON-CES

The Mutual UFO Network - Central European Section (MUFON-CES) founded in 1974, has recently been incorporated as the Society the for Scientific Investigation of Anomalous Atmospheric and Radar Phenomena - MUFON-CES, Inc. Members of the society are open-minded in regard to the origin of Unidentified Flying Objects. However, members are convinced that UFOs represent real objects which cannot be identified. The society consists of about 80 active members in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Membership is by invitation only and is terminated if active participation drops below a certain level.

Condition for membership are: academic education, specific knowledge or other specific qualifications which could be helpful in the investigation of the phenomenon. MUFON-CES does not publish a periodical, information is distributed through confidential newsletters within the society. MUFON-CES publications do appear in the form of MUFON-CES Reports every three or four years.

The members have so far concentrated their efforts on investigating of the physical aspects of the phenomenon and to a lesser degree on the psychological reactions of witnesses. This does not mean, however, that  MUFON-CES has neglected the latter: a number of reliable studies have been conducted concerning data evaluation and credibility analysis of witnesses. 

Papers presented at the annual meetings are worked out in detail, and most of them are published in the form of Conference Reports. Each volume contains between 200 and 500 pages. So far, MUFON-CES has published a total of 11 volumes with more than 3,500 pages written by 24 authors. The first ten volumes were published in German, and Vol. 11 was written in English, and is still available to date. 

Scientists with MUFON-CES, Inc. are working on a private basis in the following task groups:

1. Image- and Movie-Analysis Team
The members are professional photoanalysts and computer scientists. Until now, 130 photographs and 25 videos of Unidentified Flying Objects "in the broader sense" were analyzed by the members of this team. Only 20 % of these cases remained unidentified.

2. Radar-Image Analysis Team
Members are producers and controllers of military radar devices as well as pilots. Efforts are being made to correlate visual observations with unknown radar traces registered by military airspace control. This is a difficult task as, contrary to ground observers, radar devices react more sensitively to objects at higher altitudes.

3.Field-Investigation Team
The members of this team interview witnesses, develop measuring instruments (magnetic field detectors, for example) and observe the skies with different optical instruments on a regular basis. Over the last 22 years, interviews have been conducted with more than 100 witnesses of UFOs in the stricter sense. There are two phenomenological different classes of objects:

A. Metallic and structured physical objects which can obviously manipulate gravity. It is not known who pilots these Objects (see the Plauen Case, excerpt from “Best UFO Cases - Europe“, by I. von Ludwiger, pp. 26,27).
B. Structureless luminous phenomena which have been observed for several minutes and up to one hour at a time. Their source of energy is unknown.

4. Psychology Team
Members are psychologists, psychiatrists, and hypno-therapists. They treat people with traumatic experiences in cases with close encounters of UFOs. More than twenty cases have been investigated by members of this team. MUFON-CES members cannot conclude that the UFO occupants are exclusively extraterrestrial. Various other possibilities are considered as well.

5.Theory Team
Members of this team include Professors of mathematics and theoretical physics from various universities as well as physicists from the aerospace industry. They attempt to explain observations which cannot be understood within the framework of current field theories. From a purely astrophysical point of view, the extraterrestrial hypothesis cannot be excluded. Scientists of the theory team are investigating different possibilities which could explain the phenomena observed. The statistical evaluation of the physical interactions of UFOs with their surroundings indicates the existence of a new or unknown physical field which has caused strange effects on micro-organisms, plants and humans as well as levitation and lowering of temperature. This could mean the UFO phenomenon displays characteristics of a future technology.

6. Data Processing Team
Computer specialists and physicists are developing a data base for cases in which UFOs have shown interactions with their surroundings (by 1996: more than 1,300 cases). Members of this team have so far studied about 20% of the 140,000 pages of reports from the US Air Force Project BLUE BOOK, as well as about 600 pages of sighting reports from the former Soviet Union, and hundreds of previously classified reports from US intelligence services.

The members of this team analyzed the phenomenological spectrum of sightings and reached the conclusion that a solid object, interacting physically with its surroundings, is at the core of the UFO phenomenon. Luminous phenomena like ball lightning, will-o´-the wisps, and paranormal light effects on the one hand, and CE-IV experiences (abduction cases) and psychological projections according to C.G. Jung on the other are borderline cases which should be attributed to UFOs only after thorough investigation. Accordingly, MUFON-CES has focused its efforts on the physical aspects of the phenomenon and less on the psychological reaction of witnesses.

Theoretical studies were carried out for the purpose of finding answers to questions such as:

• What physical mechanism can lead to the extreme brightness in the air surrounding UFOs? (1977, 1983)
• Is it possible for laser or particle beams to produce solid light? (1978) 
• Does today's physics allow the generation of antigravity? (1975, 1983) 
• How is it theoretically possible for solid objects to appear and disappear? (1978) 
• Which physical theories permit the relocation of objects between widely separated points? (1978) 
• Are the UFO occupants robots from our own future? (1991) 

MUFON-CES also tried to find answers to problems of historical interest:

• Can one find a technical interpretation of the "battles in the sky" mentioned in old Indian manuscripts? (1996) 
• Do Sumerian writings really contain reports of extraterrestrial visitors? (1992) 
• Are UFOs shown in illustrations of medieval single leafprintings? (1977) 
• How frequent were UFO sightings in Germany in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries? (1976, 1983) 
• Who were the "Foo Fighters" of World War II? (1978) 

Members of the data processing team who analyzed the Blue Book material in 1981 came to the conclusion that the reports were clearly distorted. All documents are characterized by lack of carefulness, lack of familiarity with scientific methodology, and by improper application of statistics. The number of case histories remaining
unevaluated due to allegedly insufficient information is five times as great as the number of objects claimed to be unidentifiable. The material is well suited to not confirming any hypothesis. 

In 1980, MUFON-CES secured about 600 pages of Russian Samisdat material about UFO sightings and theories, including full names and addresses of witnesses. The most interesting reports were translated into German and published in MUFON-CES Report.No. 8 (1981). The documentation shows that EM cases, CE III events, and abduction cases occurred in the former USSR, too. In contrast to witnesses in the West, Russians seemed to be less concerned about ridicule than about being questioned by the secret police. It might be mentioned that the Petrosawods sighting in 1977 cannot be interpreted as a rocket launched at about that time in Plesetsk 125 miles away, as James Oberg has contended, because the phenomenon was observed for about 5 minutes under low cloud cover.

In a medical study, physiological and psychological effects of UFO radiation were compared to those of electromagnetic irradiation. Statistical methods for electronic data analysis were developed and suggestions were made for an automatic registration of UFOs (1981, 1996). A number of reliability studies were concerned with data evaluation and the credibility of witnesses. The following topics were investigated:

• The value of psychological tests for obtaining objective statements from witnesses 
• Photoanalysis methods to discover fraudulent material (1976, 1991, 1995) 
• Possibilities and limitations of hypnotic regression as a source of information 
• New methods to assess the reliability of witnesses 
• The psychological effects of a culture shock initiated by sudden contacts, as demonstrated by the example of the Melanesians and Tasdays.