On July 2, everyone celebrates Ufologist Day, a holiday dedicated to those who study anomalous phenomena and UFOs. The choice of the date of the holiday is due to the fact that on this day in 1947 the so-called "Roswell incident" occurred - near the American town of Roswell in New Mexico, a flying machine crashed, which many consider a "flying saucer" with humanoids on board.
The head of the UFO Commission of the Russian Geographical Society Mikhail Gerstein congratulated Metro on their professional holiday, who spoke about the current state of affairs in Russian ufology.
Mikhail Borisovich, how do you assess the current state of ufology in our country?
- The situation with ufology in Russia is bad - stagnation, nothing is being done. About twenty people are seriously engaged in this throughout the country, in St. Petersburg - about five.
What do you need to do this seriously?
- In order to seriously engage in ufology, you need to have at least ten years of experience, a serious approach and at least one education - in the field of physics, biology or other related sciences. There are, for example, astronomers who combine ufology with their main work.
Can an amateur become a serious expert in this field?
- Time will tell - you need to gain experience, the ability to apply your education in this area and not suffer from excessive fanaticism. We all started out as amateurs.
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What do you think could improve the current sad situation with UFO research?
- First of all, we need to stop taking this problem lightly, including our military, who are now not very interested in what is flying over them. Also, it would be worth introducing the subject of ufology, at least as an optional. Such experiments took place, but as a result everything failed, because funding is needed. Now there are a number of projects, including international ones, that do not require fundamental research and, accordingly, serious funding, you only need enthusiasm. So there is room for improvement.
Do you often receive messages about observations of anomalous phenomena?
- Recently, not very many messages have been received, but what happened was explained, as a rule, by natural phenomena. The problem is also that we do not have a service that receives messages about UFO sightings - this also requires people and money, you need either a separate phone number or a centralized resource on the Internet. It is difficult to do this on social networks now - due to the abundance of frivolous groups with several thousand subscribers, people simply cannot find the official service.
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The scientific community has not yet recognized ufology as a science. The range of specialists interested in anomalous phenomena and UFOs is very wide, and the nature of this interest is heterogeneous - from serious scientific research to superficial amateur interest, and sometimes quackery.
At the same time, in many countries of the world there are scientific organizations engaged in the study of the UFO phenomenon, where reputable scientists work. Conventionally, ufologists are also divided into two camps: those who are looking for evidence of an extraterrestrial presence on our planet, and those who are trying to explain this phenomenon by expanding the boundaries of modern science.
