Close Encounters and Close Encounter Scale

       In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it was started by astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek, and was first suggested in his 1972 book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry.[1] He introduced the first three kinds of encounters; more sub-types of close encounters were later added by others, but these additional categories are not universally accepted by UFO researchers, mainly because they depart from the scientific rigor that Hynek aimed to bring to ufology.[2]

 The Hynek Scale of Three Kinds of Encounters

CE1 - First Kind:  Sighting of objects:  A sighting of one or more unidentified flying objects -- flying saucers, odd lights, aerial objects that are not attributable to known human technology.

CE2 - Second Kind: Observation of physical effects:  An observation of a UFO, and associated physical effects from the UFO, including:  heat or radiation, damage to terrain, crop circles, human paralysis (catalepsy), frightened animals, interference with engines or TV or radio reception, lost time.

CE3 - Third Kind:  Observation of "animate beings."  Hynek did not attempt to specify what these "animate beings" might be.


Bloecher Subtypes for CE3.  Proposed by UFO researcher Ted Bloecher.
   A:  An entity is observed only inside the UFO
   B:  An entitty is observed inside and outside the UFO
   C:  An entity is observed near to a UFO, but not going in or out.
   D:  An entity is observed.  No UFOs are seen by the observer, but UFO activity has been reported in the area at about the same time
   E:  An entity is observed.  No UFOs are seen, and no nearby UFO activity is reported.
   F:  No entity or UFOs are observed, but the subject experiences some kind of "intelligent communication."
   Subtypes D, E, and F may be unrelated with the UFO phenomenon.


Extensions of the Hynek Scale


CE4 - Fourth Kind:  Human is abducted by a UFO or its occupants.  Jacques Vallee proposed a broad view of this category, to include "cases when witnesses experienced a transformation of their sense of reality,"  so as to include non-abduction cases where absurd, hallucinatory or dreamlike events are associated with UFO encounters.


CE5 - Fifth Kind:  Bilateral contact events.  Steven M. Greer's CSETI group identified "joint, bilateral contact events produced through the conscious, voluntary and proactive human-initiated or cooperative communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.  May or may not be telepathic.  Source may be "extraterrestrial," or simply "otherworldly."


CE6 - Sixth Kind:  UFO incidents that cause direct injury or death.  On Michael Naisbitt's website.

CE7 - Seventh Kind:  Mating with extraterrestrials.  Black Vault Encyclopedia identifies "mating between a human being and extraterrestrial that produces a human-alien hybridisation, usually called a Star Child.

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