Charles S. Clark

About the author: Charles S. Clark is a former staff writer for CQ Researcher, a weekly news and research report published by Congressional Quarterly Inc.

A significant number of Americans believe that UFO sightings are caused by extraterrestrial spacecraft and that the U.S. government is hiding evidence of contact with alien civilizations. Many believe, for example, that a mysterious space vessel crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, and that the government is secretly examining the wreckage. The U.S. government has consistently denied any cover-up. Furthermore, skeptics have voiced concern that the public fascination with UFOs signifies a disturbing rejection of science and rationality.

Forty years after seeing his first UFO, Ray Stanford still gets goosebumps telling the story: On the night of Oct. 21, 1956, he and three other teenagers in his flying saucer club were out in the...