[Stephen Gerringer]

Norland,

This observation of yours rings true:

. . . the fact that they are both real and unreal, here and not-here, manifestly self-evident and suddenly gone.

This very elusiveness is an important quality of the phenomenological exploration of UFOs. Whereas the positivistic approach, with its vulgar concept of existence, sees in this elusive quality nothing but a regrettable and painful LACK of information.”

And, a few lines later:

This lack of substantial identity is an essential part of their phenomenology. In their very designation as ‘Unidentified,’ the shape of the unknown is made manifest dream. As Jung pointed to the basic structure of our knowledge of them, it consists in the simple fact that ‘something is seen, but one doesn’t know what.’ (CW10: ¶591)”

I believe you “knocked it out of the ballpark,” so to speak, with this MythBlast – and not just the essay, but every entry in this exchange is well worth the read. What a wonderfully relevant and immediate example of how mythologizing isn’t just something that happened in the long ago, but remains a dynamic, ongoing, unconscious process informing culture yet today.