Archives of the Impossible

Short description: Special collection in Texas, U.S.

Archives of the Impossible

Country| United States
Scope| Paranormal, UFO, and anomalous phenomena research archives
Established| 2014 (2014)
Location| Woodson Research Center in the Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, Texas
Coordinates|  [ ⚑ ] :  missing longitude (dec format) in {{Coord}}
Access and use
Circulation| Special collection (rare materials): does not circulate
Other information
Director| Jeffrey J. Kripal (Curator), Amanda Focke (special collections)
Affiliation| Rice University School of Humanities
Public transit access| METRORail Red Line (Hermann Park/Rice University station)
Website| impossiblearchives.rice.edu
Map
Lua error in Module:Mapframe at line 384: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'lat_d' (a nil value).

The Archives of the Impossible (AOTI), sometimes called the Center for the Impossible, is a special collection at Rice University in Houston, Texas, United States. Founded in 2014 by Jeffrey J. Kripal, AOTI is based at the Woodson Research Center in the Fondren Library. It stewards collections on UFO and paranormal subjects, including the papers of Jacques Vallée, declassified United States Army Stargate Project materials, correspondence sent to Whitley Strieber after the publication of Communion, and materials related to John E. Mack. By 2025 the archive comprised eighteen collections and more than a million documents, has been identified by the Washington Library Association as the first publicly accessible archive in which UFO and paranormal research materials are a primary focus, hosts recurring conferences at Rice, and since 2024 has supported a two-year research initiative on its collections.

## Contents

* 1 Details
* 2 History
* 3 Conferences
* 4 In media and documentary interest
* 5 Collections
* 5.1 Collection details
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## Details

The Archives of the Impossible (AOTI), also known as the Center for the Impossible[1] of Rice University at Houston, Texas, is a special collection founded in 2014 by Jeffrey J. Kripal, a professor of religion.[2][3] AOTI is based at the Woodson Research Center (WRC).[4] AOTI materials are housed in the Fondren Library.[3] Kripal is director and curator of AOTI and Amanda Focke is head of special collections at the project.[5] AOTI was identified by the Washington Library Association (WLA) in their journal Alki as the first such publicly accessible archive of UFO and paranormal research materials as "a primary focus".[6]: 17 Besides UFO and alien abduction material, Kripal has stated that the archive also holds collections on mediumship, out-of-body experiences and telepathy.[7] Kripal compared AOTI with earlier parapsychological archives at the University of West Georgia and Duke University, noting that the largest related collection is the Archives for the Unexplained in Norrköping, Sweden.[8]

Kripal developed AOTI by building relationships with other researchers over time, with their team at Rice identifying collections to consider for accession.[6]: 16 According to Oxford American, the project aimed to counter "damage" caused to the study of such topics by the Condon Committee report in 1969.[3] By 2024, AOTI contained fifteen separate collections of materials.[2] AOTI was identified as the "most utilized collection within the institution."[6]: 16 The physical collection archives are maintained in climate-controlled storage off-site from the main Rice University campus.[9] The overall size of the collections in 2024 was estimated at "certainly over a million documents" by Kripal.[2] Access to the archives is available by request for review locally in the Fondren Library reading room, as well as digital archives on Rice websites with additional oral histories available.[9]

## History

AOTI was initiated with a donation by French ufologist and author Jacques Vallée of his collected lifetime research materials.[4][2] Vallée initially asked Kripal in December 2014 if he could help locate a university archive to store his collections, due to worries about "potential loss or commercialization" of his research.[10] After four years of negotiation, Vallée donated his collection to AOTI.[2] Vallée formalized the accession process at Rice by holding a lecture of his research in 2018.[10] In 2022, Wired reported that Vallée's collection in AOTI would include files on about 500 anomalous events that he investigated.[11]

AOTI holds a collection of material from John E. Mack of Harvard University.[3] Karin Austin, previously Mack's personal and research assistant, worked with his family after his death in 2004 and later Rice University, Kripal and the (WRC) on assembling and digitizing the Mack collections.[10] Austin became AOTI project manager in 2024.[10] Rice University began an extensive de-identification process for Mack's collection, to protect the identities of claimed experiencers in medical records.[6]: 8–9 Similar anonymization efforts were reported underway for the Strieber collection.[6]: 14–15

Kripal remarked in 2025 that "now we call it the Center of the Impossible.[3] According to Kripal, AOTI encompasses "the whole university", by including matters of anthropology, art, astronomy, biology, genetics, history, philosophy, and physics.[10] Rice University in 2024 began a two-year study of the materials in AOTI, after ten years of collection and archival work.[2] The research included artificial intelligence driven analysis of the Strieber and Mack collections.[3] The metadata study, according to Global Policy, "uses a phenomenological method that brackets assumptions about the ultimate cause or ontological status of the experiences," to create a review of all patterns and details of historical reports.[1]

## Conferences

Conferences for AOTI occurred in 2022, 2023 and in 2025; Rice University reported videos of conference panels had surpassed 300,000 views.[9] AOTI conferences are held at Rice University.[6]: 17 In 2025, Rice University hosted the conference, The Archives of the Impossible: The UFO and the Impossible, drawing three hundred attendees.[3]

## In media and documentary interest

AOTI has drawn filmmakers; Rice University reported that by 2024, "half a dozen" production crews had visited the archives.[10] ABC News visited AOTI in 2025.[8]

## Collections

As of April 2024, AOTI held fifteen total collections.[10] In October 2025, Kripal reported that AOTI had grown to eighteen collections.[8] AOTI houses mail correspondences that Whitley Strieber, author of the book Communion, received from the public about their reported alien abduction claims.[5][4] Kripal highlighted 3,400 letters to Strieber in particular; Strieber had received hundreds of thousands of letters that his wife Anne curated, and the particularly significant letters were donated to AOTI.[8][2] Additional collections to AOTI were donated by Larry W. Bryant, Brenda Denzler, Richard F. Haines, R. Leo Sprinkle and Wendelle C. Stevens.[6]: 14–16 Both the Sprinkle and Vallée materials have embargoes requested by the creators on some content due to their "sensitive nature", according to the journal of the WLA.[6]: 15

AOTI holds declassified research material of the United States Army's 1972–1995 Stargate Project[4][5] Christopher Senn was identified as organizing the Stargate Project collection for Rice University.[12]: 129 The collection was donated by Edwin May, the U.S. Army's program director from 1985 to 1995.[4][5] In Routledge's Handbook of Religion and Secrecy by Hugh Urban and Paul Christopher Johnson, Kripal and Senn detailed that May's donation to AOTI encompassed thousands of pages of declassified materials.[12]: 129

The archives were described as holding "thousands" of "firsthand abduction accounts".[4] KPRC-TV described AOTI collections as containing "photos, drawings, sketches, and personal testimonies, all claiming to document encounters with the unknown".[2] Editor Derek Askey of the The Sun in 2025 detailed his visit to AOTI, and his examination of materials from the government's Stargate Project and Communion readers.[5] Writing in Global Policy, Austin, Bohlander and Engles describe AOTI as containing "detailed accounts" by people "adamant the experiences unfolded as they describe".[1]

### Collection details

* Larry Bryant, 1920–2010, 103 linear feet, accessioned 2019.[6]: 27
* Brenda Denzler, 1990s–2000s, 10 linear feet, accessioned 2019–2020.[6]: 27
* Richard F. Haynes, 1947–2015, 17 linear feet, accessioned 2020.[6]: 27
* John E. Mack, 450 linear feet of materials, accession ongoing.[10][6]: 8–9
* Edwin C. May, Stargate Project materials, 1972–1995.[4]
* R. Leo Sprinkle, 1961–2017, 77.9 cubic feet, additional 13.6 GB of content, accessioned 2004–2018. Some material under embargo.[6]: 27
* Wendelle C. Stevens, 8 linear feet, accessioned 2023.[6]: 25
* Whitley Strieber, 1970–2016, 9 linear feet, multiple boxes of correspondence, accessioned 2023.[6]: 25
* Jacques Vallée, 1960–2015, 38 linear feet, some material under embargo until 2028–2031, accessioned 2018.[6]: 25

## See also

* Center for UFO Studies
* Parapsychology
* Project Blue Book
* Ufology

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Austin, Karin; Bohlander, Michael; Engles, Kimberly S. (2025-11-19). "“Don't look up?“ – Why it is past time for serious holistic research into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena". https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/19/11/2025/dont-look-why-it-past-time-serious-holistic-research-unidentified-anomalous. "Rice University’s Center for the Impossible has collected thousands of detailed accounts from individuals who, despite recognizing the seeming impossibility of what they report, nonetheless are adamant the experiences unfolded as they describe. The Center’s Metadata Research Study aims to analyze experiencer testimony using a phenomenological method that brackets assumptions about the ultimate cause or ontological status of the experiences. The goal is to examine overarching patterns in what is experienced, rather than prematurely concluding how or why it occurs."
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Cerota, Andy (October 28, 2024). "Archives of the Impossible at Rice University Marks 10 years: Exploring supernatural encounters and exponential growth". https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/10/28/archives-of-the-impossible-at-rice-university-marks-10-years-exploring-supernatural-encounters-and-exponential-growth/.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Clarke, Will (May 27, 2025). "Inside Rice University's 2025 UFO Conference". https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/inside-rice-university-s-2025-ufo-conference.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Billeaud Anderson, Virginia (July 2022). "Cosmic Sex and UFOs: Rice University's Archives of the Impossible". https://www.intownmag.com/2022/07/cosmic-sex-and-ufos-rice-universitys-archives-of-the-impossible/.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Askey, Derek (October 20, 2025). "Rifling Through the Impossible". https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/28855-rifling-through-the-impossible.
6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 Luftig, David M.; Cukier, Emily S. (August 2024). "Trends in UFO-Related Archival Collections". Alki: The Washington Library Association Journal 40 (2): 1–27. doi:10.7273/000006614. ISSN 8756-4173. https://rex.libraries.wsu.edu/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Trends-in-UFO-Related-Archival-Collections/99901139039701842. Retrieved October 28, 2025.
7. ↑ Krist, Kyndall (Fall 2021). "The Truth is Right Here". https://magazine.rice.edu/fall-2021/truth-right-here.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Askey, Derek (October 2025). "Radar and Revelation". https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/598-radar-and-revelation.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Smith, Brandi (June 18, 2025). "Rice's Archives of the Impossible offer insight and expertise for World UFO Day". https://news.rice.edu/news/2025/rices-archives-impossible-offer-insight-and-expertise-world-ufo-day.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Smith, Brandi (April 9, 2024). "A decade of discovery: 10 years of Rice's Archives of the Impossible". https://news.rice.edu/news/2024/decade-discovery-10-years-rices-archives-impossible.
11. ↑ Tattoli, Chantel (February 18, 2022). "Jacques Vallée Still Doesn't Know What UFOs Are". Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/jacques-vallee-still-doesnt-know-what-ufos-are/.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Urban, Hugh B.; Johnson, Paul Christopher, eds (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy. Routledge Handbooks in Religion (1st ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 438. doi:10.4324/9781003014751. ISBN 9781032228655. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003014751/routledge-handbook-religion-secrecy-hugh-urban-paul-christopher-johnson.

## External links

* No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

* v
* t
* e

Humanities

* Anthropology
* Digital humanities
* History
* Law
* Literature
* Performing arts
* Politics
* Philosophy
* Religious studies
* Visual arts

* v
* t
* e

Parapsychology

Outline

Topics|

* Apparitional experience
* Astral projection
* Auras
* Bilocation
* Clairvoyance
* Deathbed phenomena
* Dermo-optical perception
* Dream telepathy
* Ectoplasm
* Electronic voice phenomenon
* Extrasensory perception
* Ganzfeld experiment
* Ghosts
* Kirlian photography
* Levitation
* Materialization
* Mediumship
* Near-death experience
* Orb
* Out-of-body experience
* Pam Reynolds case
* Parapsychology research at SRI
* Past life regression
* Plant perception (paranormal)
* Poltergeist
* Precognition
* Psychic
* Psychic detective
* Psychic reading
* Psychic surgery
* Psychokinesis
* Psychometry
* Pyrokinesis
* Reincarnation
* Remote viewing
* Retrocognition
* Second sight
* Sensory leakage
* Spoon bending
* Telepathy
* Thoughtography
* Xenoglossy
* Zener cards

Active organizations|

* American Society for Psychical Research
* Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena
* College of Psychic Studies
* Institut Métapsychique International
* Institute of Noetic Sciences
* International Association for Near-Death Studies
* Koestler Parapsychology Unit
* Parapsychological Association
* Parapsychology Foundation
* Rhine Research Center
* Society for Psychical Research
* The Ghost Club

Defunct organizations|

* American Psychical Institute
* British College of Psychic Science
* Cambridge Ghost Society
* International Club for Psychical Research
* International Institute for Psychical Research
* London Dialectical Society
* Metropolitan Psychical Society
* National Laboratory of Psychical Research
* Oxford Phasmatological Society
* Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory
* Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures

People|

* List of parapsychologists
* Skeptics of parapsychology

Publications|

* An Experiment with Time
* Extrasensory Perception
* Irreducible Mind
* Journal of Near-Death Studies
* Journal of Parapsychology
* Journal of Scientific Exploration
* Life After Life (Moody book)
* Life Before Life
* Mental Radio
* Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives
* Parapsychology
* The Roots of Coincidence
* Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation
* Varieties of Anomalous Experience

* Category
* Commons

* v
* t
* e

UFOs

* Ufology
* Index of ufology articles

Claimed sightings|

| General|

* List of reported UFO sightings
* Sightings in outer space

|

Pre-20th century|

* Tulli Papyrus (possibly 15th century B.C.)
* Ezekiel's Wheel (circa 622–570 B.C.)
* 1561 celestial phenomenon over Nuremberg
* 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel
* José Bonilla observation (1883)
* Aurora (1897)

20th century|

* Los Angeles (1942)
* Kenneth Arnold (1947)
* Roswell (1947)
* Mantell (1948)
* Chiles-Whitted (1948)
* Gorman Dogfight (1948)
* Mariana (1950)
* McMinnville photographs (1950)
* Sperry (1950)
* Lubbock Lights (1951)
* Carson Sink (1952)
* Nash-Fortenberry (1952)
* Washington, D.C. (1952)
* Flatwoods monster (1952)
* Ellsworth (1953)
* Kelly–Hopkinsville (1955)
* Lakenheath-Bentwaters (1956)
* Antônio Vilas Boas (1957)
* Levelland (1957)
* Trindade Island (1958)
* Barney and Betty Hill abduction (1961)
* Lonnie Zamora incident (1964)
* Solway Firth Spaceman (1964)
* Exeter (1965)
* Kecksburg (1965)
* Westall (1966)
* Shag Harbour (1967)
* Pascagoula Abduction (1973)
* Travis Walton incident (1975)
* Allagash (1976)
* Tehran (1976)
* Petrozavodsk phenomenon (1977)
* Operação Prato (1977)
* Valentich disappearance (1978)
* Kaikoura Lights (1978)
* Robert Taylor incident (1979)
* Val Johnson incident (1979)
* Cash-Landrum incident (1980)
* Rendlesham Forest (1980)
* Trans-en-Provence (1981)
* Japan Air Lines (1986)
* Voronezh UFO incident (1989)
* Belgian UFO wave (1990)
* Varginha (1996)
* Phoenix Lights (1997)

21st century|

* USS Nimitz UFO incident (2004)
* Campeche, Mexico (2004)
* O'Hare Airport (2006)
* Alderney (2007)
* Norway (2009)

Confirmed hoaxes|

* Maury Island incident
* Aztec, New Mexico, UFO incident
* Morristown UFO hoax

Sightings by country|

* Argentina
* Australia
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Brazil
* Canada
* China
* France
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Italy
* Mexico
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Philippines
* Russia
* South Africa
* Spain (Canary Islands)
* Sweden
* Thailand
* United Kingdom
* United States

Types of UFOs|

* Black triangle
* Flying saucer
* Foo fighter
* Ghost rockets
* Green fireballs
* Mystery airship
* Space jellyfish

Types of alleged
extraterrestrial beings|

* Energy beings
* Grey aliens
* Insectoids
* Little green men
* Nordic aliens
* Reptilian humanoids

Studies|

* The Flying Saucers Are Real (1947–1950)
* Project Sign (1948)
* Estimate of the Situation
* Project Grudge (1949)
* Flying Saucer Working Party (1950)
* Project Magnet (1950–1962)
* Project Blue Book (1952–1970)
* Robertson Panel (1953)
* Condon Report (1966–1968)
* Institute 22 (1978–?)
* Project Condign (1997–2000)
* Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (2007–2012)
* Identification studies of UFOs

Hypotheses|

* Ancient astronauts
* Cryptoterrestrial
* Extraterrestrial
* Interdimensional
* Psychosocial
* Nazi UFOs
* Trotskyist-Posadism

Conspiracy theories|

* Area 51
* Storm Area 51
* Bob Lazar
* Dulce Base
* Majestic 12
* Men in black
* Project Serpo

Involvement|

| Abduction claims|

* History
* Entities
* Claimants
* Narrative
* Perspectives
* Insurance

|

Other|

* Implants
* Cattle mutilation
* Close encounter
* Contactee
* Crop circles
* Government responses
* GEIPAN
* Organizations
* Ufologists

Culture|

* Conventions
* Fiction
* Religions
* list

Skepticism|

* List of scientific skeptics
* Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

* Category

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archives of the Impossible. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Unsolved:Archives_of_the_Impossible&oldid=4232021"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template