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AGAIN—IT’S NOT MY FAULT that you have evidently had no reliable close relative or friend working in the field to better inform you.
***I don’t rely upon my relatives, I rely upon myself. And I can change several people’s minds right here on Free Republic on this issue. All they need to do is read one book. Simple.

The whole field is vastly complex. I find your explanation INSUFFICIENT to explain vast chunks of evidence . . .
***I haven’t even begun with my explanation. What I have begun is the process of educating a few souls who would have open minds. Once they are aware of the facts and how they bear on this issue, then we can start to get into the explanatory phase. And you are right — the whole field is vastly complex. That’s why we use inductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning. It’s not like we can go and knock on the door of the guvmint and say, “Gosh, I hear you have a flying saucer, let me take a look.” So we’re stuck with inductive reasoning, and Occham’s Razor is a powerful inductive tool.

INCLUDING that from my relative. That’s reasonably sound assessment of the evidence—not closed mindedness.
***That is anecdotal evidence. Strong, but not as compelling as a falsifiable theory such as I submitted to Art Bell when he got his flying saucer parts. How many of us Freepers can go to your relative and view evidence for ourselves? Maybe 3 or 4 if we’re lucky. How many Freepers can read this one book that I’m a proponent of, and make some progress on this issue? All of them.

You seem to have settled on ONE explanation—perhaps essentially from ONE BOOK. And you claim you’re less closed minded than I am. I think perhaps psychology is not your strong suit.
***Feel free to point to ONE BOOK that would change the way some hard headed rationalist would view the subject. I have it narrowed down as a start, but you haven’t. Psychology has less bearing than rational thinking — this is a process of education. I’m aware of certain facts that you are not aware of. It is your responsibility to come up to speed.

BTW, my PhD is in clinical psych.
***Good for you.

When did you start studying the topic?
***More than 30 years ago.

I’ve been studying the UFO phenomenon for more than 30 years as well, actually, more than 40 now. But, I can’t honestly say I have formed a conclusion about this.

There IS indeed a vast amount of photographic evidence that has not been proven to be fakes, and thus can serve as a basis for things “that might be”.

Photos are always dismissed offhandedly as “it could have been faked”.

Yeah, but in some circumstances, in particular when you have someone like a police officer or fireman taking the picture there is more “credit than discredit”. Or when a political figure (such as Dennis K or the Az Gov) sees something, there’s something there. Folks who want to detract from a “ufo encounter” automatically as Kookieness have a very closed mind about the subject.

Certainly, being skeptical is healthy. But being a “debunker” is as bad as being a “believer”. These two positions are both outside the norm, and outside the bell curve.

A believer is someone who is practically a religious fanatic about a subject, perhaps someone like Shirley McLean is a good example. Or those folks who joined “Heaven’s Gate” and then killed themselves because they believed their saviors were hiding behind Hale-Bopp.

A debunker is anyone that belongs to the Skeptical Inquirer mailing list....

I’ve been both. I’m neither. I’m personally dead in the middle. Open minded, I’ll examine the evidence and if it is solid will use it. If it’s not, then it must be questioned.

I guess my biggest issue with so-called skeptics is that they automatically turn into name-callers when they think you’ve gone too far for them.

So, my advice is simple. Stick to FACTS, and read them, don’t form an opinion because of personal BELIEFS about something like this.

Do UFOs exist? Damn right they do?

Are they controlled by “aliens” or “extra terrestrial intelligences”... we have no way of knowing, or proving this at all. (And yes, MOST UFOs can indeed be explained, but there are large numbers of them that simply can’t be explained away as something natural or man made).

Sorry folks.