Civilian Saucer Intelligence (CSI) was an independent

unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

research group founded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1954. It was initially called Civilian Saucer Intelligence New York, but the "New York" was quickly dropped from their name. In contrast to the many amateurish early "flying saucer clubs", CSI actually conducted rigorous investigations of UFO reports. The ''CSI Newsletter'' was issued quarterly, and UFO researcher

Jerome Clark Jerome Clark (born November 27, 1946)"Jerome Clark". ''Contemporary Authors Online''. June 12, 2002. Retrieved on April 11, 2012. is an American writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other paranormal subjects. He has appeared ...

describes it as "the best UFO periodical of its time — well edited, intelligent, thoughtful and critical-minded." (Clark, 188) They were critical of

contactees Contactees are persons who claim to have experienced contact with extraterrestrials. Some claimed ongoing encounters, while others claimed to have had as few as a single encounter. Evidence is anecdotal in all cases. As a cultural phenomenon, c ...

who claimed to be in regular contact with aliens, but stood apart from other groups by investigating

close encounter In ufology, a close encounter is an event in which a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it were first suggested in astronomer and UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek's 1972 book ''T ...

s of the third kind, where animate beings are alleged to be seen as part of UFO sightings.

History

writes, "Though its membership was small, what the organization lacked in quantity it made up in quality of its personnel" (Clark, 188) CSI's core personnel were Ted Bloecher
Isabel Davis
and

Alexander Mebane Alexander Mebane, Jr. (November 26, 1744 – July 5, 1795) was a U.S. Congressman from the state of North Carolina from 1793 to 1795. He was also a brigadier general in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War. Early life Alexand ...

. American biochemist

Michael D. Swords Michael D. Swords is a retired professor of Natural Science at Western Michigan University, who writes about general sciences and anomalous phenomena, particularly parapsychology, cryptozoology, and ufology, editing the academic publication ''The J ...

describes CSI's impressive projects as the result of "the Herculean efforts of three talented UFO researchers ... ey were tough analysts, very difficult to fool with trivial cases."Swords, Michael D., "UFOs, the Military and the Early Cold War" in ''UFOs & Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge'', David M. Jacobs, editor, University Press of Kansas, 2000, CSI was also notable for translating two books by French ufologist

Aimé Michel Aimé Michel (12 May 1919 – 28 December 1992) was a French UFO specialist, science and spirituality writer and author. Biography Aimé Michel was born in Saint-Vincent-les-Forts, now known as Ubaye-Serre-Ponçon, France on 12 May 1919. After ...

into English. Furthermore, according to Swords, CSI became astronomer

J. Allen Hynek Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 – April 27, 1986) was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under ...

's main source of UFO reports during the mid-1950s—especially cases from outside the U.S.—after the

Robertson Panel The Robertson Panel was a scientific committee which met in January 1953 headed by Howard P. Robertson. The Panel arose from a recommendation to the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) in December 1952 from a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) re ...

(1953) diverted most UFO reports away from

Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...

, to which Hynek was consultant. Though the group never formally disbanded, CSI was defunct by 1959. However, Davis and Bloecher were active in UFO research into the 1980s, Davis as a

NICAP The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) is an unidentified flying object (UFO) research group most active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. It remains active primarily as an informational depository on th ...

associate. Notably, Bloecher investigated an early 1970s UFO sighting made by young painter,

Budd Hopkins Elliot Budd Hopkins (June 15, 1931 – August 21, 2011) was an American artist, author, and ufologist. He was a prominent figure in alien abduction phenomena and related UFO research. Life Elliot Budd Hopkins was born in 1931. He was rai ...

; in later years, Hopkins would become a key figure in the

alien abduction Alien abduction (also called abduction phenomenon, alien abduction syndrome, or UFO abduction) refers to the phenomenon of people reporting their experience of being kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings and subjected to physical and psychological ...

scene.

References

*Clark, Jerome, ''The UFO Encyclopedia: 2nd Edition; Volume 1, A-K''; Omnigraphics, Inc, 1998, {{UFOs UFO organizations UFO culture in the United States Research organizations in the United States