Journal of Anomalistics 23-2 as PDF (4.6 MB)
Journal of Anomalistics 23-2 as PDF (compressed, 2.5 MB)
Special Issue
Extraterrestrial Intelligence and UAP
Questions, Discussions, Perspectives
edited by Andreas Anton
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 258–269
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.258
Editorial
Andreas Anton
How Space is Getting Closer to Us
Wie der Weltraum uns näher rückt
PDF full text (English, pp. 258–263)
PDF full text (German, pp. 264–269)
Main Articles
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 270–290
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.270
Concordant Deviance: Commonalties of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and Psi Phenomena
Michael Nahm
Abstract
In recent years, the public and academic acceptance of studies concerning UFOs (unidentified flying objects), or UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena), has drastically increased. Only 20 years ago, it was virtually impossible to discuss UAP in a scientific context. Today, top-tier media report about UAP in respectable terminology and scientific research projects with the aim to study UAP have been installed even at universities. In the first part of this paper, I recapitulate major events that indicate this attitude change. In the second part, I highlight similarities that UAP share with phenomena traditionally studied in parapsychology. Numerous authors have already stressed that these aspects of UAP need to be taken into account in attempts to understand what UAP are and how they operate. In the third part, I discuss how parapsychology could profit from the recent attitude change concerning UAP and factors that advanced its progress. In the fourth part, I finally speculate about theoretical models that could serve as a starting point for developing a deeper understanding of UAP and parapsychological phenomena alike.
Keywords
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) – unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) – parapsychology – psi phenomena – theory building
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 291–301
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.291
Nietzsches Verbrüderung mit Außerirdischen – eine Projektion in den Himmel
Karim Akerma
Abstract
Nietzsche considers himself as an overcomer of Christianity and of the expectations of redemption and salvation associated with this religion. In his words, he philosophizes with a hammer in order to envisage new and non-Christian ways for a successful existence. At least at one point in his work, extraterrestrials now seem to take the place of the Christian promise of salvation he criticized. One could articulate this constellation as follows: After Nietzsche has tracked down the Christian God in all regions of the world and driven him out of all corners of it, a vague shadow of this God is nevertheless still present: as extraterrestrial intelligence. In this guise, however, the Christian God banished from the universe has undergone a profound metamorphosis and is hardly recognizable. He is, as it were, only a pale material shadow of himself. Yet Nietzsche assigns this material shadow a systematic place that enables us to interpret it, as it were, as an extraterrestrial resurrection of the old God Nietzsche thought dead. In his extraterrestrial-material atrophied stage, God has lost the attribute of omnipotence. What still belongs to the atrophied stage, on the other hand, is a secularized form of the former divine omniscience. For Nietzsche, this omniscience is sufficient to offer us humans a substitute for salvation.
Keywords
F. Nietzsche – affirmation of existence – extraterrestrials – sacrifice – suffering – redemption – knowledge – E. v. Hartmann
Journal of Anomalistics 22 (2023), Nr. 2, S. 302–323
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.302
UAP Research in Germany: Single Case Studies, Data Management, Understanding of “Strangeness”
Danny Ammon, T.A. Günter, André Kramer, Hans-Werner Peiniger
Abstract
Unidentified Aerial/Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) have become a serious research topic in the last years. Beyond the current efforts of U. S. government agencies, NASA, and several research institutions, data on UAP have been collected for many decades in private research organizations world-wide. However, the status of the work in Germany in particular is little known internationally. This paper presents the current state of knowledge and lists key issues regarding research on UAP. Using the example of the largest research organization in Germany, the “Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des UFO-Phänomens – GEP e.V.” (Society for the Study of the UFO Phenomenon), this paper describes how lay research or citizen science can contribute to addressing these key issues. Conducting individual case studies for data collection, requirements-driven research data management and the theoretical development of basic definitions of “UAP” as well as “anomalies” and “strangeness” are identified as core factors for progress in UAP research, for which increased international cooperation between all institutions involved will be required in the future.
Keywords
UAP – UFOs – citizen science – single case studies – research data management – strangeness – anomalies
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 324–352
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.324
Das „UFO-Tabu” neu überprüft. Zum Zustandekommen von AAWSAP im parlamentarischen Prozess der USA
Ingbert Jüdt
Abstract
The thesis of the existence of a “UFO taboo“ formulated by Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall in 2008 must be re-evaluated considering the medial and political attention that the UFO topic has received since the end of 2017. To this end, it is helpful to examine the history of this “disclosure“ and to reconstruct how it came about that a fringe science research project was financed for two years with funds from the US defense budget and continued for a further six years as an informal sideline activity by members of the Department of Defense. Two factors prove to be key to understanding this process: first, the existence of a network of influence spanning the boundary between the “fringe“ and the “mainstream“, to which belonged parliamentary experienced actors in central positions in the budget approval process of the US Congress, and second, a thematic shift in focus from paranormal research subjects to the articulation of a psychological stress of American naval pilots, whose encounters with anomalous atmospheric phenomena did not receive adequate attention within the armed forces. Both institutionally and in terms of content, the boundary between illegitimate and legitimate stakeholders was thus crossed, breaking through the hitherto intact “containment” of the UFO taboo.
Keywords
congress – defense budget – disclosure – skinwalker – UAP – UFO – USA
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 353–366
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.353
Prekäre Verständigung. Möglichkeiten, Unwägbarkeiten und Risiken interstellarer Kommunikation
Stefan Brachat
Abstract
The belief in the possibility of a communicative exchange between humans and intelligent extraterrestrials is constitutive for traditional SETI research. This article takes an extended sociological-theoretical perspective on the question of under what conditions and to what extent such an exchange would be possible. It is argued that, at least in the case of the aliens that SETI could be dealing with, basic communication cannot be ruled out in principle. However, all communication is subject to blind spots. Therefore, communication between humans and aliens would be a delicate, possibly even risky matter.
Keywords
Communication with extraterrestrials – SETI – sociological systems theory – social semantic
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 367–398
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.367
Außerirdische Artefakte. Die Suche nach fremden Technosignaturen im All
Rüdiger Vaas
Abstract
Searching for extraterrestrial intelligences is one of mankind’s greatest adventures. The discovery of other beings or their relics would mean that we are not alone in the universe. It would revolutionize our understanding of life, consciousness, culture and ourselves. It would be a great opportunity – or a great danger. Astronomers have been listening for radio messages from distant stars since 1960 – still in vain. But extraterrestrial civilizations could reveal themselves in completely different ways: We might discover gigantic constructions in their galaxy, near their stars or around their planets, for example, or accompanying phenomena of their industries, spaceships or communication channels. Perhaps robots roam vast areas of space. Therefore, a new search strategy should be pursued: the search for extraterrestrial artifacts among other stars and planets, in the solar system and even on Earth. Such projects have already begun. If they were successful, our world would no longer be the same.
Keywords
extraterrestrial intelligence – SETI – SETA – technosignatures – supercivilizations – exoplanets – outer space
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 399–415
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.399
ETI und das Recht – Metalaw und die Hintergründe für einen offenen Kontakt mit relevantem Informationsaustausch – Normatives Recht Extraterrestrischer mit Geltung für die Menschheit
Klaus Stähle
Abstract
It is argued that extraterrestrials must be aware of the validity of normative law if they are culturally, socially, and especially technically developed enough to contact other species and reach Earth. Agreements valid under international law on Earth, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, could be a basis for interspecies understanding from the Earth side, if the ETI are willing and able to negotiate. In the initial phase of such negotiations or in the case of extreme otherness, humanity must focus on the principles of Metalaw. The reason why there is currently no contact with relevant information exchange with extraterrestrials and also why no open contact without such information exchange is to be observed, is presumably based on normative right of the extraterrestrials over the earth. An indirect contact is not excluded with this, however. The earth is presumably a so-called condominium, thus a kind of protectorate without own sovereign rights in relation to other interstellar subjects of international law.
Keywords
Contact with extraterrestrials – norms of international law concerning the Earth – International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) – Metalaw – protectorate – condominium
Conference Reports
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 416–431
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.416
Die (vergebliche?) Suche nach dem Bewusstsein. Ein Bericht von der Konferenz „The Science of Consciousness“ in Taormina – 22. bis 27. Mai 2023
Harald Walach
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 432–438
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.432
Tagungsbericht: Science und Séance. Symposium anlässlich des 150. Geburtstags der Biologin und Parapsychologin Fanny Moser (1872–1953)
Julia Franziska Rank
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 439–443
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.439
Conference Report: Science und Séance. Symposium on the Occasion of the 150th Birthday of the Biologist and Parapsychologist Fanny Moser (1872–1953)
Julia Franziska Rank
Book Reviews
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 444–449
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.444
V.J. Ballester-Olmos & Richard W. Heiden (Hrsg.) (2023). The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony
Reviewer: Ulrich Magin
Journal of Anomalistics 22 (2023), Nr. 1, S. 450–452
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.450
Andreas Müller (2023). Deutschlands historische UFO-Akten – 776–1889
Reviewer: Gerhard Mayer
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 453–457
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.453
Eric Michael Mazur, Sarah McFarland Taylor (Hrsg.)(2024). Religion and Outer Space
Reviewer: Meret Fehlmann
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 458–460
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.458
Martín López-Corredoira (2022). Fundamental Ideas in Cosmology: Scientific, philosophical and sociological critical perspectives
Reviewer: Detlef Hoyer
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 461–472
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.461
Hartmann Römer (2023). Quanten, Komplementarität und Verschränkung in der Lebenswelt: Verallgemeinerte Quantentheorie
Reviewer: Walter von Lucadou
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 473–476
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.473
Ina Schmied-Knittel (Hrsg.) (2023). Science und Séance. Die Biologin und Parapsychologin Fanny Moser (1872–1953)
Reviewer: Julia Franziska Rank
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 477–480
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.477
Axel Büdenbender, Harry Eilenstein (2022). Chaos, Alk und Magic. Ein Leben zwischen Crowley, Pan und Charles Bukowski
Reviewer: Gerhard Mayer
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 481–483
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.481
Gregory Forth (2022). Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid
Reviewer: Harald Grauer
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 484–489
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.484
Omnibus Review
Vaughn Scribner (2020). Merpeople. A Human History
Mark A. Hall, Loren Coleman & David Goudsward (2023). Merbeings: The True Story of Mermaids, Mermen, and Lizardfolk
Reviewer: Ulrich Magin
Journal of Anomalistics 23 (2023), No. 2, pp. 490–497
DOI: 10.23793/zfa.2023.490
Abstract Service
Frauke Schmitz-Gropengießer, Gerhard Mayer
