Are UFO Debunkers "Little Nobodies Seeking Celebrity Status?"//What We
Can Do About It!
With much help from the Budd Hopkins article "Losing a Battle While
Winning the War."
The UFO phenomenon has been viewed with increased seriousness over the
past 40 years. This once lightly regarded subject has slowly but
inexorably moved toward the mainstream of public awareness. Back in the
60's and 70's, what little media or scientific attention there was, was
usually of the silly-season, why-bother-with-this-foolishness variety.
Physicist Edward Condon's outrageous misreading of the data his own
committee had assembled marked the high point of the media's attention
to the UFO phenomenon. After Condon's grandiose dismissal of the
evidence, if UFOs were discussed at all, they were most often though of
as a weird psycho-social phenomenon, particularly by the mental health
community. Unfortunately, in the 60's and 70's, there was little
consistent mainstream attention to the phenomenon.
But through the 80's and into the 90's that has been changing
drastically. Press attention has become the norm. Now, instead of a
UFO researchers having to plead with the media for a speedy squint at
the accumulating evidence, it is the aging squad of self-designated
DEBUNKERS who have to beg for press coverage. Phil Klass, for one,
appears irate at his diminished circumstances. In his ever rarer media
appearances, he bares his hatred for UFO witnesses ever more nakedly,
until, as one viewer recently remarked, he has become on the TV screen
a perfect blend of form and content. It must be galling to be viewed
by strangers as an embittered crank, a dinosaur in the evolution of
public awareness.
The beginning of this basic change in public and media attention can be
dated to the spring of 1987 when three major publishers - "Atlantic
Monthly Press, Random House and Morrow"- published books on the UFO
abduction phenomenon. The nearly simultaneous appearance of Whitley
Strieber' "Communion," with it's compelling cover illustration of a
staring alien head, Gary Kinder's "Light Years," and Budd Hopkins
"Intruders," accomplished together what no single one of those books
could have done alone: force the abduction issue by the sheer weight of
numbers into the public consciousness. The New York Times, 20/20, and
the Washington Post treated the abduction subject seriously and
respectfully. Important later books like Dr. David Jacobs, "Secret
Life" and Ray Fowler's "The Watchers" built further upon the public's
interest, and since then the momentum has never slackened.
The response of the mental health community to the idea that UFO
abductions are real, event-level experiences has been equally
gratifying. Over ninety-five thousand psychiatrists and psychologists
have received copies of the "Roper Survey of Unusual Personal
Experiences," a booklet detailing what might be called the UFO
abduction syndrome. Over one thousand, two hundred of these have sent
the publisher requests for further information about abduction
workshops, lectures and so on. Dr. David Jacobs, psychotherapist John
Carpenter, Dr. John Mack and Budd Hopkins have addressed a number of
these subsequent workshops. They have also spoken to other gatherings
of mental health professionals, their numbers by now are probably
approaching ten thousand individuals. Thirty, twenty, even ten years
ago this kind of widespread professional interest would have been
unthinkable.
The level of serious scientific discussion of the UFO abduction
phenomenon, at the Temple University and M.I.T. conferences, for
example, has been increasingly profound and rewarding. As the
"invisible college" of concerned scientists and medical practitioners
has increased its membership, the sophistication of data gathering and
analysis has also grown perceptibly. Some credentialed professionals
are now willing to admit publicly that an extraordinary phenomenon such
as UFO abductions demands an extraordinary investigation. Ignoring the
evidence is no longer intellectually respectable.
In a kind of last-ditch stand, the dwindling band of self-anointed
debunkers have intensified its campaign to intimidate witnesses, to
create a climate or ridicule and disparagement for anyone who dares to
come forward to describe personal UFO encounters - particularly
abduction experiences. In the world of criminal law, the intimidation
of witnesses is a felony; in the court of public opinion there is no
such stricture. It is perfectly legal for someone like Phil Klass to
describe nervous, traumatized men, women and children, victims of UFO
abductions, as "Little nobodies, people seeking celebrity status." In
a stunning bit of unconscious self-description, Klass assured 'The New
York Times" that otherwise these "little nobodies" would never get to
appear on Oprah Winfrey's show. His attack, cruel and self-revealing
though it was, was nevertheless effective. This writer has to wonder
if the UFO debunkers themselves are the "little nobodies, people
seeking celebrity status, or just plain school-yard bullies!"
Over the years, hundred of people that Budd Hopkins have dealt with who
recalled UFO abduction experiences have come form virtually every
socio-economic and educational level. A NASA scientist, nearly a dozen
police officers, six psychiatrists, many doctors, lawyers, businessmen,
military officers and so on, from various layers of society have
declined to come forward to describe their experiences publicly. A
first-hand account by any one of these people would lend great credence
to the mass of anonymous eyewitness reports, but each has too much to
lose by doing so in the present climate of witness intimidation.
What can we do to reverse the tide and begin to create a climate more
congenial to scientific research? Clearly, the issue is one of ethics.
The problem is how to force the fanatics on the other side to give up
the tactic of intimidation which has served them so well. One way to
help bring this about is to absolutely refuse to deal with anyone on
the (thankfully) short list of character assassins who regularly
practice this immorality. No researcher, witness or abductee should
ever agree to participate in any media presentation which includes any
of these people. They should be completely frozen out of serious
discourse, period! They are a block to research and a hindrance to any
dialogue of value.
There are good people whom we must cultivate in order to establish a
climate where genuine dialogue and the objective study of the evidence
can flourish. Science can only be damaged by the present level of
McCarthyite intimidation.
Our side is winning. The public and the mainstream media know that the
UFO phenomenon is here to stay. Our job, now, is finding ways to end
this one destructive battle. I look forward to a time when no witness,
no abductee should ever hesitate to give testimony, because of the fear
for her reputation, for his career, for their children - just because a
group of bullies do not want us to hear the truth!
Edited from the Budd Hopkins article, "Losing a Battle While Winning
The War." Originally published in the June 1994 edition of the MUFON
Journal.
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