George Eberhart has degrees in journalism and in library science, and serves as Director of Publications for the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), an organization of scientists and amateurs across the United State who are engaged in an organized effort to "try to examine the evidence carefully and find out what the phenomenon really is."

Eberhart understands that SETI people are "embarrassed by unfologists in general because there are a lot of wacky people out there," and he admits that "a lot of what passes for ufology is wishful thinking." But he makes a definite distinction between the type of work UFOS does and tabloid-style sensationalism.

"For us, every light you see in the sky is not a UFO," he says, explaining that CUFOS only investigates "solid findings"--that is, case in which there is solid physical, visual, or radar evidence. "We're very critical of things... we have an open mind, but we don't believe everything.

Right now, in addition to maintaining the largest UFO case depository in the United States and publishing a magazine and a scientific journal, CUFOS is engaged in two major investigative projects.

The first is a study of UFO abductions, a relatively common phenomenon that Eberhart says "may or May not be related to UFOs." In the usual scenario, people are abducted by "little grey men," brought onto an alien craft, examined, and then allowed to go.

Victims do not remember their ordeals--they are only aware of a period of lost, unexplained time. Memories can be regained through dreams or through strategies like hypnosis. Eberhart says that there is usually "no objective vision," and therefore no real proof.

CUFOS has investigated about 16-20 abduction cases, beginning by putting subjects through a battery of tests that is designed to see if there is one specific personality type that favors UFO abductions. Abductees usually have one of two basic personality types: "fantasy-oriented and paranoid" or "totally normal, overly calm and objective."

Both types tell the same sort of story. Eberhart says that CUFOS isn't really sure what that means--it may be the result of real experience, or it may be a by-product of some undiagnosed psychological conditions within each group--but the MIT professor has an idea.

"These cases do not have a standard psychological explanation, and there is a lot of similarity between them that can't be explained. I mean, a lot of people think they're Jesus Christ...and there's more variation in their conceptions of Jesus Christ than in these people's stories."

Eberhart is more reserved. "Something is really occurring here. We don't know if it's a psycho-spiritual thing or if aliens really are abducting people. But even if it is some bizarre mental problem, it would still be interesting.

"It could be that aliens are abducting people to get genetic material, but it seems like that's a bad way to do it, for technologically advanced beings," he says.

"Some have humorously opposed this, suggesting that aliens use our planet as a high-school biology class, that they do dissections... We can only do so much second guessing about aliens. We don't even understand humans in the Middle East."

The second big CUFOS project involves an investigation of an alleged UFO crash that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico, in July, 1947. Several people saw the alleged crash, which supposedly left behind a significant amount of physical debris--including an odd, tin-foil like metal that could not be cut, a "weird balsa wood-like substance with odd characters on it," and, Eberhart believes, alien crew members' bodies.

Under instruction from the Pentagon, Army investigators from the nearby base retrieved the debris and sent if to Ford Worth and Los Alamos, where it was analyzed and officially reported to be the remains of a weather balloon with a reflective radar attachment.

A new book, Crash at Roswell, written by two ufologists also challenges the official government findings.