From: Gary <galevy@pipeline.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 22:30:04 -0400
Fwd Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 01:31:59 -0400
Subject: UFOSearch # 9 - Science, Counterintelligence and
This is the ninth in the series of essays by UFOSearch
that I am posting to UFO UpDates.
Commentary:
After the hoopla and revelations, treachery and deceit
surrounding the anniversary of the "Roswell Incident"
perhaps it's time to step back and reassess our approach
to the study of the UFO phenomenon. "UFOs, Science and
Counterintelligence" offers a charming melange of topics
for our consideration.
It is with particular pleasure that I post this ninth
UFOSearch essay to UFO UpDates. This essay,
"Science, Counterintelligence And UFOs" has not been
published previously and makes its debut here. This
will be a four-part essay.
I believe that this essay will mark a watershed in
writing on the UFO phenomenon and I hope that it will
be followed by a other new expositions and perhaps a
a book. Personally I was disappointed by one of the
recent book releases of which I had great expectations,
Jim Marr's "Alien Agenda". Just as the topics and
issues he was exploring got interesting his book came
to a close, perhaps his advance ran out? Well I don't
think you will be disappointed here as the author treads
where most writers on the UFO phenomenon don't dare.
Gary Alevy
NOTE: These essays are posted with the permission of
the author, Val Germann. If you would like to correspond
with him I have arranged a temporary internet email address
that will forward the correspondence to him. This is not
a permanent email address. The address is:
ufosearch@pipeline.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
Science, Counterintelligence And UFOs
Val Germann
Columbia, Missouri
(C) 1997
Abstract
The "UFO" and the issues surrounding it have become extremely
important today, for at least four reasons:
1) The "UFO" is now a mass phenomenon, known to hundreds of
millions of people around the world and the subject of
significant business activity in the form of motion pictures,
television and books;
2) Many people, some with excellent credentials, some quite
wealthy, have gone beyond simple "interest" and have joined
with others in "UFO organizations" or have begun their own
research;
3) The "UFO" has generated a great deal of government interest,
most of it negative in nature, that is, opposing the
"extra-terrestrial" hypothesis and downgrading the importance of
UFO sightings;
4)There is, however, significant evidence to suggest that the "UFO"
is the product of another, non-human, intelligence operating on
Earth with humanity.
After a discussion of the first three items above the fourth one
will be selected for particular attention. If UFOs are assumed
to be the products of another intelligence then the "scientific
model," held up as the ideal by many involved in the study of the
"UFO," is not sufficient for that study and "counterintelligence"
should be added to the model we use.
The paper will conclude with a counterintelligence analysis of
much extant UFO evidence and then go on to generate possible
scenarios from that analysis. The scenarios are then rated as to
their plausibility, using the rules of counterintelligence.
Reference numbers in the text, example, "[1]", refer to notes
that will appear at the end of the paper. These notes will
contain both references and a discussion of those references.
Introduction
If there is any one constant in UFO research it is the
never-ending call for ufology to become more scientific. Over
and over again those of us investigating the phenomenon are urged
to seek the hard, scientific proof that will once and for all
establish UFOs in the world of mainstream science. The
assumption behind all of this is that the best way to study UFOs
is through science and the scientific method. But is this
assumption correct?
I maintain that it is not always correct and I state this even
though I am involved in the sciences myself and have a great love
for science and great respect for many scientists. But the truth
is that science and the scientific method are dependent on
certain assumptions that may not apply to the study of UFOs,
especially if they are in fact the products of another
intelligence.
The scientific method demands repeatability of either observation
or experiment. Science assumes the universe is objective, in
effect a gigantic mechanism operating with total consistency over
vast stretches of time and space. Science also assumes that the
only active intelligences operating in the universe are
scientists themselves and so scientific experiments and
observations can, if rigorous enough, be termed proof. [1]
All of the above implies control (of observation or experiment)
on the part of the observer or experimenter, and blind obedience
to totally consistent laws on the part of the phenomena observed
or experimented upon. These are the bedrock assumptions upon
which all physical science is based. However, the plain fact is
that if UFOs are under the control of another intelligence then
these assumptions can very often be null and void.
This does not mean that science and technology are of little or
no use in investigating UFOs, not at all. But it does mean that
the assumptions of science are not always relevant where UFOs are
concerned. And it also means that efforts to make the
assumptions of science the sole rubric for UFO research could
doom all of that research to eventual failure. Finally, it means
that there may never be available any so-called "proof" in the
UFO arena. All we may ever have is "evidence."
Thus it is my position that since we may be dealing with another
intelligence in studying the UFO, we should consider adding the
counterintelligence model to our intellectual arsenals. It costs
nothing to do this and the benefits might include the
clarification of many issues that have been quite baffling in the
past.
The Importance Of UFOs Today
The constellation of phenomena revolving around the UFO have
become quite important today. Millions of people are interested
in the subject and over the last half-century mass entertainment
has gone to the well of the "UFO" or "aliens" over and over
again. In the mid-1990s this has reached what might be an
all-time high as ultra-expensive Hollywood movies have depicted
invasions by alien beings who wreaked havoc on our planet before
being defeated. At the same time, both television and film have
featured the "UFO abduction" and this element of the phenomenon
is now to be seen in comic strips and even in political
cartoonery.
This is important because one effect of consideration of the UFO
is collateral consideration of the human condition, particularly
the situation of the one performing the consideration. That is,
the study of the UFO can change a person, especially one who is
serious about the study and also serious-minded. The advent of
"aliens" from off-planet, another "dimension" or wherever would
be a huge watershed in human history, huge in ways that we have
no way to truly anticipate. It is this aspect that gives some of
those who investigate UFOs serious pause about the future, so
great do the uncertainties seem. Others, viewing the evidence
differently, see only benefits accruing from the arrival of
"others" from beyond.
Involved with the UFO today are thousands of people, most of whom
are not "serious-minded" but are nonetheless interested in the
phenomenon. This is true of many "hot subjects" in our world
today and is to be expected. What is interesting about the 1990s
is that the UFO has appeared to rapidly move up the social ladder
and now very wealthy people are spending their money, and large
amounts of it, in public, in the UFO arena.
Why should this be? Well, one particular twist to the UFO
situation is that the subject is entangled with other very
important human considerations. That is, the UFO is associated
with "space" and its technology as well as the possible human
future there; it is associated with the possible arrival on Earth
of another "civilization" and what that might mean to us all; it
is associated with "the future" in general, which is of obvious
importance and, finally, because of the magnitude of some
elements of the UFO and our government's involvement with same,
the UFO is associated with a growing mistrust of all of our
institutions, including the government.
As you can see, this is no trivial list, all the items of some
importance and all of them tending to make one THINK about the
future -- and one's position in that future. One possible result
of the above could be a change in the way a person thinks and
feels about his own HUMAN condition and how that condition came
to be. Such considerations, potentially affecting millions of
people as the "UFO" becomes more and more of a mainstream
phenomenon, cannot go unnoticed by those at the top our human
power structure.
Finally, as mentioned before, there is the strong possibilty,
supported by very significant evidence, that the UFO and the
phenomena around it are the products of another intelligence, one
operating on Earth with us today. It is this aspect of the UFO,
and the study of that aspect, that is the primary subject of this
paper, though the other elements are important and will not be
ignored as we move through our discussion.
The Case For Another Intelligence
I maintain that any respectable study of the available evidence
will show that there is ample reason to consider that another
intelligence is operating on the Earth today. The literature is
replete with examples and I will be citing some soon. Because I
am a witness to a UFO (40+ years ago) I will be selecting
incidents that are important to me, either because they resemble
what I saw as a child or because I have received, first hand, a
similiar account.
As a researcher I have an affinity for accounts that have been
taken from a reputable journal and are so strange that "ordinary"
objects or processes are simply ruled out from the start. Two
such are discussed in one of my favorite books, Aime Michel's THE
TRUTH ABOUT FLYING SAUCERS, (1956). [2] On page 26 begins an
account of an enormous shadow that appeared in a thin overcast at
Fort Worth, Texas, in 1913, reported in the MONTHLY WEATHER
REVIEW. The shadow began as a small dark circle but then quickly
expanded to considerable size, holding its position as the clouds
moved with the wind. After a time the shadow began to shrink in
size and in a few moments it was gone the same way it had come.
As Michel says, what else can it have been but a "vehicle" of
some sort, descending from a great height to just above the
clouds, stopping for some time at a fixed altitude, and then
ascending back to the great height from which it had come? The
year, 1913, rules out a whole group of explanations and the fact
that it was able to hold its position against the wind rules out
a few more. The conclusion is all but forced.
This is important to me because a similiar thing was reported by
a friend of mine, except what he saw was a huge, bright, lighted
area moving swiftly in a thick overcast. There was no sound, no
meteor reported, and the light was very, very bright.
Another account from Michel concerns a French meteorologist who
was part of a garrison at Adar-En-Abnet, in the heart of the
Sahara. It was early April, 1942, when one morning someone
pointed out what looked like a small aluminum speck in the sky.
Very soon a small telescope was put into play and forty men
observed something that looked like "a small moon" with "a pale
metallic glint." It appeared to be rotating slowly, once in
every two-and-a-half hours. They watched it off and on all day.
The next morning, it was still there, "immediately overhead," and
it stayed all of that day! On the morning of the third day it
was gone. My readers are invited to speculate on what this might
have been, in the middle of a remote desert during World War II.
Long ago, when I was in junior high school and on the football
team, at practice, I watched several "aluminum specks" hold their
position in the sky to the east of my hometown of Carrollton,
Missouri. The year was 1962 and I, and others, watched them for
at least half an hour as they just sat, still, seemingly at a
terrific altitude. Then one moment we looked and they were gone,
nowhere to be seen.
Moving back, to 1951, let's examine a series of incidents from
Ruppelt's THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFED FLYING OBJECTS. [3] In a
report from Kirtland Air Force Base Ruppelt learned that on
August 25, 1951, an employee of Sandia Corporation had seen a
gigantic "flying wing" from his home. The employee was sitting
in his back yard, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, when both he and
his wife saw a "gigantic airplane" fly swiftly and silently over
their home. The "airplane" was low, about 1,000 feet, and was
huge, as large as a B-36, and it was delta-shaped, actually more
like a "V", flying point-first. The bottom of the craft seemed
to have longitudinal lines on it and the trailing edge had six
blue lights attached. The Sandia employee included a sketch of
the object and Ruppelt found that he had a high security
clearance. This report was confidential and was not made public
until Ruppelt's book appeared. Even inside the Air Force only a
few people knew about it.
This was important because on that same night, and twenty minutes
later, began the famous "Lubbock Light" series of episodes, in
which several college professors (including one whose last name
was Oberg!) saw a formation of lights move silently overhead, on
more than one occasion. In early September Ruppelt himself went
to Lubbock and interviewed many people who had seen the lights,
some of which were similiar to those seen on the back of the
"flying wing" by the Sandia employee. Then Ruppelt got a real
shock.
On his way back to Dayton, on a commercial flight, he happened to
wind up seated next to a retired rancher from the Lubbock area,
who, after talking to Ruppelt for a bit, told the Air Force
officer his story. It seems that about ten minutes before the
Lubbock professors saw their lights, this gentleman's wife had
seen, from their backyard, a huge airplane without a body and
with soft blue lights on the trailing edge. His wife was, the
rancher said, "as white as a sheet" just after she saw this
object, it was so large and strange.
This group of sightings has great import for me because as a
child I saw a large, dark, "V-shaped" object fly over my head
while I was riding a tricycle on our front sidewalk. I did not
see or hear this object coming, rather I suddenly had the urge to
look straight up, to the zenith, and there the object was. And
it frightened the daylights out of me. I remember looking around
for places to hide from this thing and, finding none, I ran into
the house and hid. So I understand how the rancher's wife felt!
Our next incident is from the much maligned Condon Report [4] and
is a perfect example of how that "investigation" was mismanaged.
On page 277 of the Bantam paperback edition is "Case 10" of
Section IV, in which the principal witness, a NUCLEAR PHYSICIST,
and his family had a very frightening experience while driving in
their car on vacation in 1966. On a dark, rainy and drizzly
night, under a low overcast, they saw a red, pulsating
hemisphere, at treetop height, suddenly turn into a brilliant
white object that lit up the surrounding terrain like daylight
and forced the witnesses to shield their eyes. The physicist
immediately stopped his car and made measurements from estimated
bearings and distances.
Later, after further study, he concluded that the white object
was the equivalent of a 500 megawatt source. The Condon "team"
(Saunders and Wadsworth) went to the site with the principal
witness "and an astronomer friend." A helicopter and a transit
were employed, to what effect not specified. Later, the
principal witness spent a considerable amount of time and money
on his own investigation (obviously NOT impressed with what the
Condon team was doing), and ruled out all conventional
explanations, at least in his own mind. The Condon Report does
not even try to "explain" this case and in the "comment" section
lamely states that the witness' estimate of the object's
brightness was probably in error.
Once again, this incident is of great interest to me because over
the last 20 years I have been told of two events of a very
similiar nature. In 1973, a General Telephone employee was
driving, late at night, about fifteen miles northwest of
Columbia, Missouri, when she saw a brilliant orange object lift
out of a soybean field near the Missouri River and head upwards
and out of sight at great speed. This object lit up the entire
river valley as far as the witness could see -- about six miles!
Another such incident was told to me in 1989 and only month after
it happened. A woman living about twenty miles due west of
Columbia observed, at close range (about 50 feet), a brilliant
white object which lit up the entire valley in which she lived.
Terrified (she had her small son in her vehicle) she drove at
high speed out of the valley and, turning around, saw the object
change to a large orange disk just before she lost sight of it
over a hill. This lady did not return home that night and stayed
with relatives until her fear abated.
I find these accounts quite persuasive and for my puposes could
stop with them. But I must include a report from one of my
heroes where UFOs are concerned, Dr. James E. McDonald. In the
text he filed with the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, in 1969, in conjunction with a speech he gave that
year, he includes a powerful investigation of four very
interesting Condon cases. We will be concerned with one of them,
from Kirtland Air Force Base, in the year 1957. It is truly
spectacular. [5]
On an overcast and drizzly night in November, two air traffic
controllers at Kirtland saw, from the tower, a small, bizarre
object come down out of the overcast and "fly" down the main
runway. The object slowed quickly and then moved diagonally
across the field, at less than 50 feet altitude, before stopping
over a restricted B-58 Hustler refueling area. The two
controllers got a very good look at this object, through
binoculars, and found that it was about the size of an
automobile, roughly egg-shaped, and "flying" with its long axis
in the vertical position. It made no sound.
The object then began moving again, as if its operators were
looking for something, before shooting back up into the overcast
at amazing speed, faster than any conventional aircraft could
have done, according to these two experienced witnesses. This
object was tracked on radar for some minutes following this
overflight and turned around and came back over Kirtland some
minutes later.
McDonald found that the "Condon Team," which had included this
incident in an incomplete and garbled form, had never located or
questioned these two men and had "explained" their sighting as a
private plane getting lost on an evening of low visibility, about
as laughable an "explanation" one is ever likely to see.
I think these incidents will suffice to give the flavor of many,
many other similiar ones. If one will go to the trouble to
examine this evidence, with an open mind, one not influenced by
what others have said about the authors or their works, one
cannot help but be impressed. This is what happened to me.
Finally, after much consideration, I made the decision that the
evidence for another intelligence operating on the Earth was so
impressive that not to accept it was tantamount to intellectual
dishonesty.
That is, I realized that, objectively speaking, there almost had
to be another intelligence operating here on Earth. And once
this momentous decision was taken, it became paramount to study
this intelligence and what it was doing on Earth, if such a thing
was possible. It was then that I realized that science was a
useful but insufficent tool for this task and that I needed (and
it was obvious once it came to me) "counter-intelligence," a
"counter" to this other, unknown, intelligence.
Notes To Section One
[1] For a wonderful exposition on science and how it works see
OVERSKILL, Eugene S. Schwartz, Quadrangle Books, 1971, pp. 12-37.
The author was a biologist and environmental activist.
[2] Aime Michel's THE TRUTH ABOUT FLYING SAUCERS, Criterion
Books, 1956, is a favorite of mine. Many intereting European
sightings are discussed and Michel publishes a terrific critique
of Menzel's first debunking book. The Sahara desert series of
sightings begins on page 100.
[3] Edward J. Ruppelt's THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING
OBJECTS, 1956, Doubleday. The events surrounding the Lubbock
Lights are described beginning on page 96. This book is a
classic and buried within it are many, many fascinating accounts
which could have led to yet another book. It is too bad that
Ruppelt died so young.
[4] THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS, Edward
U. Condon, project director, Bantam Books, 1969. Close reading
of this work reveals that the "conclusions" section has very
little to do with the "case study" section.
[5] Speech by Dr. James E. McDonald before the American Associ-
ation For the Advancement Of Science in Boston, December, 1969,
available from The Fund For UFO Research. See also McDonald's
testimony before Congress in July, 1968, as reported in John G.
Fuller's ALIENS IN THE SKIES, Putnam, 1969, pp. 64-96. What is
striking about McDonald's AAAS speech is his professional
skewering of both Hynek and Menzel, as well as the Air Force and
Edward Condon. And McDonald, as a world-renowned atmospheric
scientist, had the expertise to make his criticisms truly sting.
It is unfortunate that he killed himself before his first book
could be put into print.
[End -- Part One of Four]
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