THE LEVELS OF UFO BELIEF by Charles Tromblee

The Levels of UFO Belief ©

My preference when writing about UFOs is to try to focus on the alien beings and their crafts as quantitatively as possible. Ufologists who specialize in Disclosure rarely present data that further illuminates any alien facts, especially quantitative facts; instead their focus is to get the government to admit what it knows, which is considerable. It could be that this approach, if ever successful, would result in faster progress than the direct approach of having laymen looking at the craft and close encounter data for trends and new revelations.

This article will focus solely on humanity’s mental steps on dealing with the UFO phenomenon, so unfortunately it will reveal nothing about our alien visitors.

As people become educated on the UFO phenomenon, some will advance to various levels of belief and acceptance on the matter. These are my conclusions about my fellow man regarding his approach to UFOs.

THE LEVELS OF UFO BELIEF ARE AS FOLLOWS:

LEVEL 1: AWARE OF THE PHENOMENON: Almost every adult on earth is aware that occasional unidentified objects are seen in our skies. Lots of people never advance out of this level (simple awareness), preferring to believe that all such sightings can be explained using known, earthly explanations. Still another portion of this group is just not interested in the phenomenon. Or they were like me, waiting for someone else or else a great sighting to prove it one way or the other. I was at this level for at least 40 years. Lots of people at this level believe the “explanations” that occasionally are put forth. Sometimes the explanations are prosaic, such as Chinese lanterns, and sometimes their explanations require some fancier beliefs such as top secret test aircraft, NAZI UFOs, or even plasma balls generated by a natural earthly process. Explanations such as these (i.e. non-extraterrestrial) are correct 80-90% of the time. All true UFO skeptics are in this first level. This level also harbors the vocal skeptics who think that they are protecting humanity or the government by stonewalling the UFO phenomenon. These people actually believe in the phenomenon (or are very afraid that it is real), so these fakers actually belong at one of the next levels. Almost everyone at this level believes that there is no government cover-up of UFOs.

LEVEL 2: STRONGLY SUSPECT THAT THE PHENOMENON IS UNEXPLAINABLE BY EARTHLY CAUSES: These people include the ones who say, “All I’m saying is that the phenomenon needs a lot more scientific study.” They are aware of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) and that it is but one of several possible explanations including those of Level 1. I was at this level for about a year once I made the commitment to actually study the issue objectively, and this study forced me to move to the next level. I think at least 70% of humanity falls into the total of Level 1 + level 2. Surprisingly, many UFO experts are in this level. One of my favorite UFO blogs is by such a person, and he does good work too. This is the “safe” level for those who have interest in UFOs to be at because all you are doing at this level is calling for scientific studies to be done, and it shows you have not made the total commitment to believe in alien visitation. They are UFO agnostics. You can probably avoid most public ridicule by being here and hang onto your job as well for it preserves one’s political correctness. For sure, this level also harbors some closet Level 3 people who don’t want to be branded as kooks. Most Level 2 people believe that there is a government UFO cover-up.

LEVEL 3: ACCEPTANCE OF THE ETH: This group has figured out that we are being visited by non-human beings. I am at this level. Some people who have had spectacular or even a very good sighting immediately advance from Level 1 to Level 3 because they know what they saw. People can even regress from this level to a previous level. This level should come with a warning because it is filled with pitfalls which can cause a believer to “go off into left field” and never return. By this I mean that once at this level, the person now might feel compelled to choose among several popular alternatives about the beings who are piloting the crafts, and most of these alternatives are wrong, or so I believe. At this level, you might believe that the beings are native to earth and have been keeping themselves secret from us since recorded history began (yes, I know that such alien beings would not be “extraterrestrial”). You can choose to believe that the beings are sent here by God, and that they are nephilim, or you can take a pure nuts-and-bolts interpretation of the phenomenon. You can also believe that they are simply evolved human time travelers from the future. All UFO nut jobs are at this level. This level should probably be broken up into the separate beliefs categories that prevail: Level 3 Paranormal or Spiritual, Level 3 Nuts and Bolts, Level 3 etc. Not surprisingly, some ufologists are at this level, and even they can succumb to the dangers of being in it as they are gradually seduced by the easy answers (read “easy” to mean “no investigative work required”) of the Level 3 Paranormal or Spiritual. Almost everyone at this level also believes in the government UFO cover-up, although there are some notable exceptions at this level to that belief such as Col. John Alexander and Dr. David Jacobs, abduction researcher.

Because this article can be criticized for trying to put people into slots, let me now now increase the criticism by envisioning a hypothetical UFO symposium where everyone who attends has to wear a name tag with their belief about UFOs coded per this article. My name tag would have my first name and underneath it would say: ”Level 3-Nuts and Bolts-GC”. The “GC” means that I believe there is a government cover-up.