Reason for high strangeness

[boomerang]

I just read Charles Swenson's post about the origins of the term "high strangeness" and found it very interesting. I'm now wondering about the nature of it.

One of the few consistencies about the UFO phenomenon seems to be its "high strangeness". Sighted craft come in a bazillion different shapes and sizes, do things which seem to violate natural law, possibly meddle with people's sense of time and other perceptions and so on. One researcher noted that the UFO phenomenon denies itself!

I'm wondering if "high strangeness" is necessarily inherent in the nature of whatever witnesses are seeing. Or, is it all a stage production by someone/something for the purpose of appearing to be what it is not?

The trickster-like nature of ufos and their occupants seems to manifest again and again.

 

[Trajanus]

I just read Charles Swenson's post about the origins of the term "high strangeness" and found it very interesting. I'm now wondering about the nature of it.

One of the few consistencies about the UFO phenomenon seems to be its "high strangeness". Sighted craft come in a bazillion different shapes and sizes, do things which seem to violate natural law, possibly meddle with people's sense of time and other perceptions and so on. One researcher noted that the UFO phenomenon denies itself!

I'm wondering if "high strangeness" is necessarily inherent in the nature of whatever witnesses are seeing. Or, is it all a stage production by someone/something for the purpose of appearing to be what it is not?

The trickster-like nature of ufos and their occupants seems to manifest again and again.

If they're up to no good, it makes sense for them to do or say kooky things. People will be less likely to believe, or take the phenomenon seriously, while their scheme continues...Of course you could ask why do they show themselves at all? If their plan requires many sorties, so hiding becomes tough, it's possible that the high strangeness approach is less trouble overall.

 

[exo_doc]

Does the term "High Strangeness" also take into account anything really strange, not necessarily UFO related? Like weird weather phenomena and Forteanna and the like?

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

I would agree "high strangeness" is mixed in with weather formulations and disturbance in the Earths magnetic fields most likely plays a major role?

 

[CapnG]

I think the high-strangeness aspect has more to do with how our brains percieve these events than it does with the events themselves. Lacking the appropriate frame of reference, our brain does it's best to fill in the gaps of understanding for the events it's witnessing. Sometimes the results are imperfect.

 

[exo_doc]

I think the high-strangeness aspect has more to do with how our brains percieve these events than it does with the events themselves. Lacking the appropriate frame of reference, our brain does it's best to fill in the gaps of understanding for the events it's witnessing. Sometimes the results are imperfect.

Glad you brought up perceptual interpretation (to paraphrase you).
Have you heard the anecdotal story of the high school teacher who witnessed an oblong cloud around 6 feet long on the roof of his house? It roiled and boiled for a couple of minutes before it sprayed a jet of water on the teacher, then it vanished or evaporated. The teacher had excellent credentials, was not one to make up stories, etc etc.
Given that he's honest and actually beleives what he saw, what could he have seen to misinterpret this?
And what does a sensory misinterpretation like this mean for everyday things we experience?
If our senses are so easily confused, or the interpretation of them anyway, ...how in the world can we trust what we experience? And it begs questions like "Why do we not wreck cars more than we do? Or crash airplanes more? Or able to function at all if our senses can be fooled as in High Strangeness events?"

 

[boomerang]

I lean toward the Vallee school of thought which says these phenomena are calculated to present apparent nonsense to the rational part of our minds while changing something profound at deeper levels. The other side of the argument by analogy might be the everyday things we do around our household pets--use of a key for the door, switching on the house lights etc., that must be seen by a dog or cat at a much simpler level. Going about our daily business involves manipulation of processes our pets are neurologically incapable of understanding.

 

[hak]

I need a definition of "high strangeness" as I'm unsure what it is. I have an idea, but I haven't heard this term till I started listening to the paracast.

 

[CapnG]

I need a definition of "high strangeness" as I'm unsure what it is. I have an idea, but I haven't heard this term till I started listening to the paracast.

"High strangeness" is generally considered to be anything exceptionally weird given already bizarre circumstances. Example:

- Abducted by "aliens": weird

- Abducted by "aliens" who offer you egg-salad sandwiches: High-strangeness

 

[boomerang]

Lifting J. Allen Hynek's definition from his book, "The Ufo Experience",

"The Strangeness Rating is, to express it loosely, a measure of how 'odd ball' a report is within its particular broad classification. More precisely, it can be taken as a measure of the number of information bits the report contains, each of which is difficult to explain in common sense terms."

CapnG's examples are on the mark.