Sheaffer’s “Psychic Vibrations” column has appeared in the Skeptical Inquirer for forty years. His new book, Bad UFOs, is available through his blog, BadUFOs.com. His website is www.debunker.com.
In UFOlogy today, the term Mirage Men is understood to signify supposed shadowy government agents who, for inscrutable reasons, are allegedly tricking the public—not by “debunking” UFOs but creating belief in UFOs and the like. The title comes from a 2010 book by the British author Mark Pilkington, Mirage Men: An Adventure into Paranoia, Espionage, Psychological Warfare, and UFOs. In 2013, the book was made into a movie of the same title written by Pilkington and directed by John Lundberg, Roland Denning, and Kypros Kyprianou. The movie purports to demonstrate “How the US government created a myth that took over the world” (www.miragemen.com). Interestingly, Lundberg is a leading “crop circle maker” in the United Kingdom (www.circlemakers.org).