Is there a signal in the noise of the UFO experience, or does meaningfullness follow silently in its wake? While examining UFO reports over the last 30 years, I have come to realise that some UFO sightings and close encounter experiences have an extraordinarily symbolic relationship to the observer’s psychical status at the time of their experience. 
Between late November and mid-December 2001, the UFO UpDates Internet mailing-list saw an exchange of postings regarding the UFO sighting made by Maj. Robert White on his July 17, 1962 flight in an X-15. This provides a case study of belief, the interactions between believers and sceptics, how evidence is presented, and how it is accepted or rejected. Although there are similar exchanges every day on the various news groups, what makes this example different is the availability of data from the X-15 flight itself.