The mystery of elusiveness

Elusiveness is the most striking feature of UFO manifestations. I define it in my text as the permanent coupling and adjustment, case by case, of two contradictory dimensions, ostentation and evasion. And it is this that I take as the object of my reflection. For the sceptics, this characteristic is enough to close the debate: the case is empty, we are dealing only with a gigantic collective illusion. For those ufologists who wish to keep the solution to the enigma open, elusiveness remains the major obstacle, because it prevents the collection of tangible data that would enable them to carry out their research. In this article, I propose to open up another avenue of reflection, by making elusiveness the signature of a new and original phenomenon. Elusiveness has two conceivable levels, a weak level and a strong level. The weak level inevitably leads to the sceptics’ solution. The strong level, on the other hand, leads to the discovery of a new and original phenomenon, with disturbing implications. This is the concept that I seek to define and construct in this article. At the end of my reflection, I come up with a strange paradox: certainly, the process of elusive monstration prevents us from gathering reliable and conclusive data on UFOs. And yet at the same time it is the most reliable and meaningful thing we know about this perplexing issue. In fact, the elusive monstration - the fact that the UFO only shows itself to better evade detection - exhibits the perfect structure of an oxymoron. The oxymoron is one of the most sophisticated tools of human thought, in that it allows the simultaneous expression of two contradictory thoughts. It follows from this observation that we are not dealing with natural phenomena but with the intentional manifestation of a psyche. But if we accept my conclusions, the nature of this psyche, as things stand, remains undetermined. At the end of my paper, as an historian of the psychic sciences, I will open the debate to the phenomenon of poltergeists, which has been studied for nearly two centuries. The central characteristic of poltergeists is precisely their elusiveness, which makes the task of investigators very difficult. And yet, based on the material damage they leave behind in the homes where they appear, parapsychologists have no hesitation in asserting their reality. The way poltergeists donate is the same as that of UFOs: they are unpredictable, elusive, theatrical, spontaneous, non-reproducible under experimental conditions, and yet they leave traces. That is why I think it is legitimate to use the best-supported manifestation as a basis for thinking about the most elusive. It is this reasoning that leads me to conclude that strong elusiveness is thinkable, and that it characterizes a real phenomenon. I end my article with the proposition that UFOs belong to a family of phenomena marked by this particular mode of donation, of which they constitute a recent and spectacular form.