A close encounter is described as an event in which a person or persons witnesses an unidentified flying object. This system of classification was created by astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek in his 1972 book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry.
He introduced the first three kinds of encounters; the later sub-types of close encounters were later added by others. Here, we take a look at the first three kinds of Close Encounters by Hynek and the later found kinds added by others.
Close Encounters of the First Kind
This is probably the most common type of close encounter. It just refers to a sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects in the sky. Sometimes these can be plainly attributed to astronomical or meteorological phenomenon, aircraft or animals.
The Rex Heflin UFO photograph
Close Encounters of the Second Kind
For A Close Encounter of the Second Kind, the subject observes the sighting of an UFO and its associated effects. These could include crop circles, terrain damage, traces of heat and/or radiation, human paralysis, lost time or electrical interference.
A common trait in many human abduction accounts are that usually they will be travelling in a vehicle or aircraft, and a sighting of an UFO will cause their instruments or mechanical components of their vehicles to malfunction. Next, they will experience what is termed as "missing time", e.g. a half hour drive home will turn into 3 hours, with the subject not having any recollection of the extra "missing" hours.
Many believe these subjects were abducted and brought onto the UFOs by extraterrestrials, which brings us to the Fourth Close Encounter.
A crop circle in Switzerland
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
In this case the witness claims not to have only observed an UFO, but possibly its occupants as well, which refers to Extraterrestrials.
This form of close encounter usually takes the form of the witness either happening upon the alien craft and its occupants in the vicinity of one another or firstly seeing the aliens themselves engaged in some form of activity and later also bearing witness to the alien craft taking off and departing from the vicinity.
Most rare in this category are reports of people witnessing alien craft in flight with occupants visible through some kind of window or aperture in the craft itself.
Ilkley Moor Extraterrestrial Sighting
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind
A close encounter of this kind is perhaps the most infamous of all. Often deeply traumatic in nature and predominantly committed with no regard of any kind for the wishes of the abductee, reported close encounters of this kind exploded in numbers in the latter decades of the 20th Century.
In most cases an abductee will be spirited away while alone, most commonly while sleeping or driving alone late at night and returned within the space of anything from hours to days later. Most are isolated incidents, but there have been reports of recurring abductions of some subjects by the same entities time and time again.
Though group abductions have been reported, these remain in a distinct minority. In some cases the victim will bear witness to the whole experience from start to finish and in others details will be vague and only revealed through the use of hypnotic regression.
Abductees almost universally report that once in the power of their captors they are subjected to examination and study of an intrusive nature. The object of these examinations has been speculated upon wildly, throwing up suggestions from simple scientific curiosity to a sinister plan to create a race of human/alien hybrids for use as a slave race.
Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind
This kind of close encounter features the hallmarks of many of the others, but also requires one element that the others lack which sets it apart. In a Close Encounter of the Fifth Kind, as well as coming into contact with extraterrestrials, the witness also achieves communication of one kind or another with those beings.
The nature of the communication may be verbal or telepathic and there is of course no guarantee that the information exchanged will be of a positive or constructive nature. Some contactees also claim to have regular contact with extraterrestrials much like having regular phone conversations with a friend.
Close Encounters of the Sixth Kind
This refers to an encounter where contact with an UFO or extraterrestrials results in direct injury or death for the witness. This is very rare, but evidence suggests that the disappearance Of Frederick Valentich may be caused by a UFO.
Valentich was a trainee pilot who reportedly spotted a UFO during a training flight in 1978. After observing it for a while, he was not heard from again. No trace of him or his airplane was ever found.
[The Disappearance Of Frederick Valentich]
Close Encounters of the Seventh Kind
This last encounter, the Close Encounters of the Seventh Kind describes a mating between a human being and extraterrestrial that produces a human-alien hybridisation, usually called a Star Child.
This concept was similar to ideas promoted by ancient astronauts theorists like Erich von Däniken, Zecharia Sitchin and Robert K.G. Temple, in that extraterrestrials interacted with, perhaps interbred with and influenced ancient human beings in the past.
The Starchild Skull, which was discovered in 1930 in Chile, is said to be the remains of a human/alien hybrid. Carbon dating has traced its age to about 900 years old, while DNA testing was inconclusive, at best, experts declared that the skull does contain human DNA.
As the skull does not have any clear indication that it looked and belonged to a human, UFO theorists speculated that it was the remains of a human/alien hybrid. On the other hand, experts think that this could just be the remains of a human who was physically deformed or had some mental disability.
Comparison of a normal human skull with the Starchild skull
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