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.
-----------------
From: moonrose <moonrose11NOmoSPAM@aol.com.invalid>
Date: Sun, Jul 30, 2000, 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: Are UFO Debunkers "Little Nobodies Seeking Celebrity
Status?"

I was interested in your remark about seeing the alien face on the
book cover. As I began seeing this symbol more often, it has caused
less and less reaction in me but in the beginning I was having a full
blown panic attack every time I saw it. I work in a building divided
into low cubicles and younger people seem to like it a lot and many
have it on their walls. It was really hard for me to deal with on a
daily basis. I have not felt comfortable enough to ask that they be
removed as I would have to give a reason and I know I couldn't do that
without being labeled a loony.

I have been afraid to sleep by myself my whole life but have solved
that problem by finding a position that allows me to work at night. It
removed a tremendous amount of stress in my life. My hours are now
sending me home in the middle of the night but I don't even attempt to
sleep until dawn. I have no conscience memories of ever seeing grays
but remember seeing many other things that I wonder about. They are
probably something planted over the memory that gives me so much
problem.

I can remember seeing angel and fairy like images throughout my
childhood. I have a very vivid memory of seeing a UFO near an
underground missile silo in my teens. She also remembered it but we
hardly ever talked about it and never in depth.  My ex-husband
insisted in working nights for many years when he could have worked
days and I now understand why. I am sure he was aware of the night
time activity on some level but would not admit it. I have also had
several weird experiences with people seeking me out to discuss alien
experiences as though they had pre-knowledge that I would know what
they were talking about. Have I ever been abducted? I am not sure but
I know the night my mother and I has the experience together, we had
missing time and a car heading in the opposite way from what it should
have been.

I can't tell you how nice it is to find others that I can talk to
about these experiences. It is very lonely and frightening when you
think you are alone and probably crazy. We all can't be nuts can we? I
have some theories on who and why but I will go there when I am a
little more comfortable on this board. When I started to open up on
the AOL boards I was attacked by people that seem to always be online
there for that purpose. I will be more careful this time.
-----------------
Doug Depue wrote:

Well said. At least as far as an apparent characterization of the
circumstances. I have wondered in relation to examples of this
particular syndrome of ufo topic rejection by various individuals I
have
encountered in cyberspace, if it might be that they have experienced
traumatic encounters and are desperately trying to repudiate their
suppressed terror or humiliation. It just doesn't make sense that a
person would devote so much time and energy into denying the topic.
Why
bother? If you don't believe there is any credibility to Ufology and
the
paranormal/universal technological topics, why not move on to a
subject
that has some recognized merits? What is the reason for the
children's'
crusade against ufo discussion?  It really makes me wonder. Keep up
the
valuable contributions you have been making in explaining what is
going
on in Ufology. Such information is very valuable to people who have
not
yet discovered the books, magazines, videos and web sites that further
the topic.