Concordant Deviance: Commonalties of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and Psi Phenomena

Abstract

In recent years, the public and academic acceptance of studies concerning UFOs (unidentified flying objects), or UAP (unidentified anomalous phenomena), has drastically increased. Only 20 years ago, it was virtually impossible to discuss UAP in a scientific context. Today, top-tier media report about UAP in respectable terminology and scientific research projects with the aim to study UAP have been installed even at universities. In the first part of this paper, I recapitulate major events that indicate this attitude change. In the second part, I highlight similarities that UAP share with phenomena traditionally studied in parapsychology. Numerous authors have already stressed that these aspects of UAP need to be taken into account in attempts to understand what UAP are and how they operate. In the third part, I discuss how parapsychology could profit from the recent attitude change concerning UAP and factors that advanced its progress. In the fourth part, I finally speculate about theoretical models that could serve as a starting point for developing a deeper understanding of UAP and parapsychological phenomena alike.