Michael P. Masters - Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon

All we can ask of a theory is to predict the results of events that can be measured.

Leon M. Lederman

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Oscar Wilde

It is often difficult to separate fact from fiction, and particularly at a young age. Though beginning with the onset of object permanence, and throughout the remainder of infancy and childhood, we begin to develop a sense of what is and is not a part of our natural world. Through the simple act of living, we are constantly evolving a perception of reality that both reflects and creates the cultural norms of our society. By the age of eight years old, I was confident that I had become rather adept at deciphering fact from fiction, or at least until learning of an odd encounter my father once had with an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), some years earlier, in the dark skies above Amish country in rural Ohio.

As a veterinarian, my dad often responded to late-night farm calls in relatively remote parts of northeast Ohio. On one of these nights, while driving to a call with a colleague who happened to be riding along with him, he approached the crest of a hill and noticed a bright light in the distance. I remember him describing it as a glowing ball of light sitting near the horizon, just over the next hillside. However, unlike most lights that emanate beams outward from the center, this object just glowed brightly like the full moon on a clear summer night, while hovering silently off in the distance.