The ‘Hynek scale’ is a tool used for assessing the typology an encounter with the UFO. Initially developed by J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer, UFOlogist and adviser to a series of US Air Force UFO studies (Project Sign, which ran from 1947-1949; Project Grudge, 1949-1952, and Project Blue Book, 1952-1969), the scale is divided amongst Distant Encounters (DE-) and Close Encounters (CE-). Although Hynek’s initial developments divided each into three primary categories, four additional CE types have been since added by later researchers.
The breakdown:
DE-1: Appearance of lights (and lights in motion) in the nighttime sky that cannot be explained easily by ordinary light sources.
DE-2: Daytime sighting of an inexplicable object that may (or may not) move at immense speeds – metallic saucers or cigar-shaped crafts, primarily.
DE-3: Radar confirmation of unidentified flying objects that occur subsequently with eyewitness confirmation.
CE-1: Close witnessing of a UFO with no interaction, either with the witness or the external environment.
CE-2: Encounter with a UFO that entails some sort of interaction with the environment – strange electrical phenomenon (car ignition problems, radio interferences etc), burn marks on the ground, crop circles, etc.
CE-3: Confirmation of (usually humanoid) occupants of the UFO, which may or may not entail contact or communication.
CE-4: The abduction event proper, in which the witness is taken aboard of the UFO (and often experimented upon).
CE-5: Direct communication between the ‘aliens’ and the humans.
CE-6: Direct communication and engagement between the aliens and the humans that results in long-term injury or even death.
CE-7: The production of an alien-human hybrid through experimental breeding techniques.
After CE-4 comes CE-5 to -6. Schwa-mask peels off, and you’re heading into faceless horror, worm-spillage, losing focus. (1)
The transition from Close Encounter 4 – abduction as such – to CE 5-6 is a switch from the thematics of Science Fiction to those of cyberpunk or cybergothic. At CE5-6, the question of what is experienced is inextricably bound up with the question of what experience itself is, since the events undergone seem to constitute what Templeton calls a “Transcendental Occurrence” a change in the nature of time itself, registering as Freudo-Barkerian trauma. (2)
With the Transcendental Occurrence – the encounter with the Dweller on the Threshold, Yog-Sothoth, the Positive Zero – in mind, consider these AQ equivalences that rotate like beacons:
66 = FEAR = LOL = NET
69 = GATE = KALI = KATA = LSD 25 = UFO = WAR
96 = DEMON = DJINN = FATES = METAL = PEST = WWW
99 = SCHWA = QABBALA = THETA = XXX
Spooky link round-up from the Sarkon zone:
Cybernetics came from UFOs: letter concerning the flying saucer crash recovery team.
Cybernetics came from UFOs, round 2: delirious conspiracy theory from Jack Shulman of the American Computer Company concerning the Roswell Crash, Bell Laboratories, AT&T and the secret history of the semiconductor.
The real Control Society: Jacques Vallee on UFOs and a cybernetic ‘control system’ – grist for the simulation hypothesis mill? (Bonus: Vallee puts on his accelerationist hat, 1, 2 and 3)
The real Control Society, round 2: Vallee hangs out at ARC.
DI Research Zone 22 