UFO Organizations in 2025: Do They Actually Exist?

Greetings. UFO organizations. That particular title is used often in UFO circles, especially on social media, but what does that actually mean, and what does the public receive?

Social media has allowed people to portray themselves as they see fit, accurately and/or otherwise. Individuals can assign themselves educational degrees and investigative experience that may not be warranted, which is fraud by definition. People can, and often do, create platforms that claim to be investigative organizations, complete with claims of additional members, chapters and subcommittees, and highly trained field investigators.  

Is this all a reality, or just a sham? Let's take a look.

In what seems like the distant past, when the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP,) the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO,) and the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) were all in simultaneous existence, the situation seemed on the surface to be completely different as opposed to the current state of affairs. Each organization possessed field investigators, had staff members with specialized knowledge, and consistently published information which informed members about the results of any and all conducted investigations. Each publication, the NICAP U.F.O. Investigator, the APRO Bulletin, and the MUFON Journal, dedicated quite a number of pages to the results of field investigations, which demonstrated that each organization was actually examining the UFO problem in a "boots on the ground" manner. As time passed, the changes began in earnest. 

By the late 1980's, the ufological habitat had morphed, with NICAP having ceased operations, and with APRO having folded with the untimely passing of the organization's leaders, Coral and Jim Lorenzen. The Mutual UFO Network was left alone as the only piece on the ufological chess board, and with the influence of the more sensationalized aspects of the UFO phenomenon gaining traction, legitimate investigative efforts began to take a back seat on the bus to ufoville. The MUFON Journal slowly started to publish less and less investigative results, and more and more unsubstantiated claims about interactions with alleged aliens. Investigative summaries went by the wayside, and with them, went any hope for the maintenance of organizational focus and integrity.

Promotional efforts are now the primary motivation for MUFON, but they are not alone, so to speak. The Internet and social media are populated by a plethora of groups and "organizations" that profess to investigate the UFO phenomenon. But does the public notice what is actually being offered for consumption? Likely not. What is being offered is anything but legitimate investigative efforts. Copious amounts of selfies. Shared links to unsubstantiated information. Promotional posts and advertisements. All nonsense, with nothing of substance coming to the surface. Peer-reviewed papers never surface. Investigative papers and summaries are never published. Even anecdotal information concerning UFO reports have become as rare as a Smilodon in the concrete woods of downtown Seattle. The situation as it stands now is set in stone.

Despite the unfortunate state of ufology today, all is not lost. There are a few, too few, local chapters of MUFON that continue to conduct investigations of UFO reports, albeit in low numbers due to the lack of field investigators. There may be other far lesser-known groups out there that have escaped the lure of the ufotainment industry (disease,) but I am ignorant about their existence. Let us hope that the current situation changes. 

Let us hope.

Thank you for your time and consideration.