The Oz Factor

Defined by Jenny Randles in her 1983 book, UFO Reality, as "the sensation of being isolated, or transported from the real world into a different environmental framework...where reality is but slightly different, [as in] the fairytale land of Oz." E.g., UFO witnesses commonly report that their neighborhood strangely lacked, during the sighting experience, the usual background sounds of barking dogs or other animal sounds.

UFO investigators may note that there were no other witnesses to a daylight sighting in a populated area, or that no motor vehicles were seen on what is normally a busy city street. Randles adds: "There appears to be a zone of influence surrounding these close encounters. If you are inside of it, then you experience the episode in all its glory and as a total reality. If you are outside of it, then the UFO sighting might as well not have happened.

"The Oz factor certainly points to consciousness as the focal point of the UFO encounter...Subjective data that override objective reality could be internal [from our subconscious], external [e.g., from some other intelligent agency], or both...The encounter has a visionary component. You might interpret that as meaning it is all in the imagination. But it really means that there is a direct feed, if you like, from the source of the encounter to the consciousness of the witness...Some witnesses report a strange sensation prior to the encounter -- a sort of mental tingling as if they are aware that something is about to happen. They just have to look up and see what is there, as if it had called to them silently...Then time seems to disappear and lose all meaning."

A direct feed, from causative agency to consciousness of the witness, appears in cases of astro-alignment. E.g., witnesses may be sky watching, perhaps with binoculars or small telescope, and see a lighted object slowly approach the moon and then move precisely around the edge.

Parallax would prevent other observers, even a short distance away, from seeing the same display. Witnesses get the impression the display was staged precisely for them. An isolated case of such astro-alignment could be coincidence but there are multiple instances.