Think Anomalous

Welcome!

Think Anomalous is a video series and online publisher devoted to communicating vital information on anomalous phenomena to a broad audience. We survey the most credible research in anomalistics and make it accessible in the new media environment. More about us.

Detail on Olaus Magnus’s Carta marina, 1572 edition. National Library of Sweden, shelfmark KoB 1 ab

We produce three streams of content:

Think Anomalous videos and articles are written and edited by site founder, Jason Charbonneau. Jason lives in Toronto, Canada.

Think Anomalous Videos

Short documentaries on all kinds of anomalous phenomena.

UFO Case Review Videos

Short documentaries on the subject of UFOs only.

Articles

Featured Articles:

Brief writings on anomalies and anomalistics.

The Myth of "Mass Hallucinations"

Discovery, Not Disclosure

What is "Woo"?

Bending Spoons and the Limits of Intellectual Tolerance

What's New?

In October of 1957, a Brazilian farmer named Antônio Vilas-Boas had an experience that’s now considered the first documented “UFO abduction” case in the post-war era.(1) Four months after the unusual events, Vilas-Boas shared his experience with a doctor and a journalist.(2) At a time when stories of UFO landings and entity encounters were dismissed out-of-hand, Antônio’s experience was widely overlooked, at first. But more than 60 years later, we see that his narrative contains many of the same elements as the common “alien abduction” experiences of the 80's and the 90's, and it was the first to suggest a rather alarming agenda on the part of the abductors.(3) (continue reading)

The Jinn: Supernatural Beings of the Muslim World

According to the Quran, the sacred text of Islam, the jinn are a race of mostly invisible beings that occasionally interfere in peoples’ lives, and possess their minds and bodies. The jinn of Islam grew out of earlier Mesopotamian deities and Greco-Roman daemons, but they also have a great deal in common with traditions of invisible beings and “little people” all over the world. The similarities between jinn, fairies, and twentieth-century aliens, for example, suggest that they may all be manifestations of the same phenomena, filtered through different cultures. (continue reading)

Jacques Vallée, UFOs, and the Case against Extraterrestrial Origins

There is probably no more influential thinker in the study of UFOs than the French astronomer and computer scientist, Jacques Vallée. Beginning in the late 1960s, Vallée drew ufologists’ attention to the symbolic or “meta-logical” qualities of UFO reports, and argued that there was a continuity of experience from anomalous sightings and entity encounters in historical folklore and mythology. For pioneering the first alternatives to the extraterrestrial explanation for UFOs, Vallée has earned a reputation as the grandfather of the “new” ufology, and he’s forced ufologists and anomalists of all persuasions to revisit old assumptions about UFOs, and what it is they’re doing here. (continue reading)

Japan Airlines 1628 UFO Encounter, 1986

Although it's not uncommon for pilots to witness UFOs, the case of Japan Airlines flight 1628 is remarkable for involving a prolonged and dramatic close encounter corroborated by multiple radar systems. The witnesses’ story attracted both media and government interest, and the resulting investigation unearthed a wealth of supporting evidence, including extensive radar data and radio transcripts that document official handling of the situation. The case is a stand-out example of an airline UFO encounter, and it tells us a lot about the ways in which the FAA, the airlines, and even the US intelligence community, work behind the scenes to manage what we hear about UFOs. (continue reading)

The "Mothman" Encounters, 1966 - 1967

Today, the so-called “Mothman” - a humanoid monster with red eyes and big, bird-like wings - is a fixture of paranormal horror, immortalized in film. But though it has since slid into the realm of fiction, the “mothman” was first based on a well-documented wave of sightings in the northeastern United States between November 1966 and December 1967. These sightings coincided with a range of other anomalous phenomena far stranger than anything portrayed in the movie adaptation. The sheer volume of these reports, as well as their coincidence in time and space, make the year of the “mothman” one of the most fascinating and perplexing case studies in anomalous history. (continue reading)

UFO Disclosure? Part 2 - Luis Elizondo and the Space Force

In the first video in this two-part series, we reviewed the history of Tom DeLonge’s communications campaign for the US government, and the announcement of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, as well as the introduction of its former director, Luis Elizondo. I reminded viewers of the US government’s long history of seizing UFO evidence and deceiving UFO researchers, and argued that the To The Stars team, or TTSA, might be continuing this legacy of deception, rather than breaking from it. (continue reading)

UFO Disclosure? Part 1 - Tom DeLonge and AATIP

A number of viewers have asked my opinion on the US government’s recent moves towards UFO disclosure, so I’d like to devote this two-part series to reviewing these developments, and offering my take on them. In this first video, we’ll look at the statements of Tom DeLonge, former guitarist of blink-182, and the secret government organization that DeLonge claimed to have helped reveal: the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP. In the next video, we’ll look at the statements of AATIP’s director, Luis Elizondo; the UFO evidence disclosed since 2017; and the US military’s UFO report from June 2021. (continue reading)