From the First Kind to the Seventh Kind

Back in 1972 an author named J. Alen Hynek wrote a book about UFOs and the classification of alien encounters. We’ve all heard of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ being a classic 1977 sci-fi movie from Steven Spielberg. Now there’s ‘The Fourth Kind,’ a movie about alien abduction.

But, did you know that there are, in total SEVEN KINDS? Not all were proposed by Hynek, but have evolved and been added through the decades since the first scale came out.

Here’s how it all plays out:

The First Kind: Sightings of UFOs

The Second Kind: Observation of UFOs and physical effects from UFO

The Third Kind: Observation of beings

The Fourth Kind: Abduction of humans

The Fifth Kind: Cooperative communication between humans and… other intelligence

The Sixth Kind: UFO incidents that cause injury or death (sidenote: wouldn’t this fall under ‘physical effects?’ i.e. The Second Kind? I’m just sayin’…)

The Seventh Kind: Human-Alien hybridization

Somehow, it seems like there are a few possibilities missing. For example, what about human-alien trade before we breed with them? If they have the technology to get here, wouldn’t it be awesome to see what else they have? Or maybe it will come after and it will be the Eighth Kind. Either way, there's a good chance we'll see other 'Kinds' hit theaters in the future.

Encounter Scale from Wikipedia