UFO Reality as a Question of Science - with Stanton Friedman, Nuclear Physicist:

In the following sequence of introductory videos nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman addresses the key questions surrounding the subject from a rational science-based perspective. His overview provides a valuable lesson in how we think about and conduct scientific research.

Stan Friedman on Sagan and science (8:24)


Stan Friedman on Project Blue Book Special Report #14 (4:34)


Stan Friedman talks about working under secrecy (1:13)


Stanton Friedman discusses NASA (5:09)


Stan Friedman - The Skeptic arguments against UFOs (7:55)


Stanton Friedman brings up three key points in these short clips:

#1 That there is a genuine signal in the 'noise' of UFO reports;

#2 that there are 4 kinds of scientific inquiry - *reproducible experiments (in the lab), *instances where you can predict but not control (eclipses), *instances where you can't predict or control but hope to make observations (earthquakes), and *those actions governed by intelligent behaviour where you can't predict or control and where investigations after the fact are the norm; and

#3 that the central debunking arguments, upon examination, are bogus arguments.
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Officially Sanctioned scientific studies or technical reviews HAVE found a definite 'signal to noise' in the UFO reports they examined:

1. Blue Book Report Special Report No.14 (USA -1955)

This 1955 scientific study done by the Battelle Memorial Institute on behalf of the US Air Force found 22% of the sightings could not be explained. The very high percentage of unidentified objects was drawn from what was regarded as the higher quality sighting reports. Reports that did not have sufficient evidence to draw definite conclusions were rejected. Overall the study found that UFO reports consisting of better quality data were more likely to remain unidentified - which makes sense if new phenomena are being observed. If  UFO sightings were only representative of fuzzy misidentifications, of known phenomena, then the better the quality of the report, the more likely it would be identified. In this study the better the data, the more it was likely to remain unidentified. Usually the expected number of unidentified objects remaining after analysis for all reporting, with good and bad quality data, is about 5 percent. (Source)

2. The Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (The Condon Report, USA - 1969 )

This 1969 University of Colorado study, effectively closed down the US Air Force official interest in UFOs, with its negative conclusion that;

".. nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge. Careful consideration of the record as it is available to us leads us to conclude that further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby." (Source)

However, this conclusion is erroneous and does not reflect what was uncovered in the course of the investigations. If one actually reads the contents of the report it becomes apparent that the scientists involved did find a number of significant cases that represented real phenomena. The summation of Case 46, from the photographic section, illustrates the point:

"This is one of the few UFO reports in which all factors investigated, geometric, psychological, and physical appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disc-shaped, tens of meters in diameter, and evidently artificial, flew within the sight of two witnesses. It cannot be said that the evidence positively rules out fabrication, although there are some factors such as the accuracy of certain photometric measures of the original negatives which argue against a fabrication." (Source)

Furthermore, analyses of the Radar-Visual cases shows numerous areas for further investigation. This is well illustrated by the Case 2 summary:

"Visual mirage at Bentwaters seems to be out of the question because of the combined ground and airborne observations; the C47 pilot apparently saw the UFO below him. The visual objects do not seem to have been meteors; statements by the observers that meteors were numerous imply that they were able to differentiate the UFO from the meteors. 

In summary, this is the most puzzling and unusual case in the radar-visual files. The apparently rational, intelligent behavior of the UFO suggests a mechanical device of unknown origin as the most probable explanation of this sighting. However, in view of the inevitable fallibility of witnesses, more conventional explanations of this report cannot be entirely ruled out." (Source)

The Colorado Study, rather than providing a proof that UFO reports should be discounted, shows exactly the opposite. This is something that can only be ascertained from reading the Case Studies, and drawing conclusions directly from them, as opposed to accepting, at face value, the demonstrably faulty summary portion of the Report.


3. The GEPAN study (France - 1979)

This French National Centre for Space Sciences five volume investigation focused in detail on eleven of their best cases (three volumes) after having filtered out a number of less promising sighting reports. Only one of these eleven cases was assessed as having a conventional explanation. The other ten cases showed that the witnesses to these cases "witnessed a material phenomenon that could not be explained as a natural phenomena or human device." (Source)

Link: http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1626.htm


4. The COMETA Report (France - 1999)

COMETA was a high-level French UFO study organisation from the late 1990s. It composed of high-ranking officers and officials, some having held command posts in the armed forces and prominent positions is the aerospace industry. The name "COMETA" in English stands for "Committee for in-depth studies." The study was carried out over several years by an independent group of mostly former "auditors" at the Institute of Advanced Studies for National Defence, or IHEDN, a high-level French military think-tank, and by various other experts.

The group was responsible for the 'COMETA Report' (1999) on UFOs and their possible implications for defence in France. The report concluded that about 5% of the UFO cases they studied were utterly inexplicable and the best hypothesis to explain them was the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH). The authors also accused the United States government of engaging in a massive cover-up of the evidence.

The 'COMETA Report' was not solicited by the French government, although before its public release, it was first sent to French President Jacques Chirac and to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Immediately afterward, a French weekly news and leisure magazine called VSD referred to it as an "official report", though technically this wasn't the case since COMETA was the work of a private, non-profit, ufological study group. Skeptic Claude Maugé wrote about this: "By letter dated 23 February General Bastien, of the Special Staff of the President of the Republic, wrote: 'To answer your question, this report compiled by members of an association organised under the law of 1901 (ruling most non-commercial private associations in France) did not respond to any official request and does not have any special status'."

The report drew largely on the research of GEPAN / SEPRA, a section of the French space agency CNES, unique in being the only official French government-sponsored organisation to investigate UFOs. The birth of GEPAN / SEPRA in the mid-1970s was in large part due to the intense wave of high strangeness UFO sightings in France in 1954. (Explanatory text copied from the You Tube video featured below)

The COMETA Report

[Please note: this post, and the entire webpage, is currently under construction!]

History of the Phenomena

The following video documentaries have been selected because they are the most concise in terms of explaining the history of the UFO situation. Please excuse the production standards on the first film which otherwise includes great, highly recommended, content:

UFOs: 50 Years of Denial



UFOs, Lies and the Cold War
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The Cover-Up: Key Points to Consider

Serious interest in the reality of the UFO phenomena has been attacked from many quarters through false representation often carried with a large does of ridicule. A particular hindrance is having people conditioned to think of belief in UFOs as being synonymous with a belief in 'conspiracy theories'. The 'conspiracy theory' label casts interest in the subject as an irrational belief or mental illness. While it may often be categorized as such the acceptance that 'UFOs are real' is entirely rational, based on various scientific reviews and official admissions.  

Rather than being fully informed of the history, and treated to a dispassionate appraisal of the issue, the public has more often been treated to a confusing blend of false information and lampooning of the subject.

Lunatic fringe ideas, associating the serious interest in UFOs with mental illness, hoaxes, frauds and sensationalism, have misrepresented the nature of the subject.

Despite these representations the subject of UFOs does remain a popular notion, albeit a somewhat non-serious one, in the minds of many people. Polls have consistently shown a large percentage of people believe in the issue despite not having a well grounded understanding of the topic.

Traditionally, the public gets its information from the mass media which has often fails to adequately articulate the issue beyond the 'oddball' special interest context. Mixed with with some highly credible documentaries the media can poison the well of knowledge with the promotion of highly questionable material and individuals that downplay the accumulated evidence.

When is comes to misinforming the public there are two sides to this coin in controlling how people think about the question of UFOs - there is Censorship and Disinformation. Although they differ, they are interconnected strategies and compliment each other.
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Censorship 

Terry Hansen writing about major media in his book the Missing Times points out that many UFO stories appearing in the local media are not carried on the national networks. There is a firewall where much of this is due to the ridicule that surrounds the subject. The follow presentation covers various aspects of this media censorship, and also deals with the government disinformation/propaganda that aids in keeping people, especially more serious minds, away from official interest in the phenomena:

NEWS MEDIA COMPLICITY AND THE TRUTH EMBARGO, with Terry Hansen. A mesmerizing account of his investigation into whether some of America's most influential news organizations, many having maintained close ties to the U.S. intelligence community, have willingly suppressed full and accurate news coverage of extraterrestrial related phenomena for a variety of "national-security" reasons. Hansen reveals the remarkable and persistent difference in UFO-related news coverage exhibited by local and national news organizations and reviews the history of censorship and propaganda during the twentieth century and the evidence for media-government collusion over the course of the half-century-long UFO controversy.




CENSORSHIP AT THE SOURCE 

We know US government classifies the UFO reports they receive so that only limited amounts of information are revealed to the public (if we are lucky!). AFR-200 and JANAP 146 are reporting directives, the latter applying to civilians also, that subject individuals to serious penalties (under "Espionage Laws") if they talk publicly once having filed their reports. Although some of these filed reports are known many are not. If they were filed within the CIRVIS network they will be held by NORAD which is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Also the public must understand that although we have access to some official UFO files and analysis, such as the Project Bluebook sighting reports, and their Special Report No.14 conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute, the best data is more likely being withheld.

Indeed, we have accounts of military film taken of UFOs at close range from aircraft, and from Ballistic missile tracking telescopes, as replayed in various documentaries, where there is no record of what happened in any of the available data sets. 

Notably, after Project Bluebook was discontinued in 1969 reports of UFOs were still being filed via CIRVIS procedures and sent to NORAD through 'regular UFO reporting channels' indicating what many had suspected - that Bluebook had been a public relations front and the real work kept secret.

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Disinformation

When it comes to the mainstream media, and what they publish - whether it is cast in a positive or negative light, or whether a subject faces censorship - it is important to understand their relationship to the CIA.

Most people do not realise that the CIA does not simply analyse news. As the OSS it originally, and still does, control public information flows. Via Operation Mockingbird, the existence of which was discovered during the Church Committee Hearings of the 1970s, it was revealed that controlling public perception is an important role of the agency.

There is a CIA report dealing with criticism of the Warren Commission into the assassination of John F Kennedy where it lays out how to underhandedly discredit legitimate questions about that incident. The CIA advocates using the term 'conspiracy theory' and this is directed at a domestic US audience. The directive clearly shows the CIA does not operate solely in the sphere of foreign intelligence and should be a wake up call to the wider mechinations of this agency.

Specifically in relation the UFO phenomena we know the CIA was involved with their Robertson Panel review of 1953. They indicated that efforts must be made to downplay reports of UFOs through official declarations and through influencing the media behind the scenes.

The following clip shows evidence that the CIA, 13 years after the Robertson Panel, had a major hand in a CBS television story on UFOs:




PROFESSIONAL 'DEBUNKERS'

Debunkers, consisting of credible professionals, predominantly recruited from academia, including those working in the physical sciences, have grossly misrepresented the UFO data for many decades.

They should be seen as deliberate disinformation artists, likely working for the CIA, because they are too intelligent to be so divorced from a rational accounting of the subject. They claim some level of expertise, to be acting under a scientific umbrella, but their actions prove otherwise. What they do doesn't make sense unless their actions are to deliberately mislead.   

Naturally, in running a disinformation campaign, the individuals engaged in pushing false arguments tend to be media trained, charismatic and eloquent people. However, regardless of their outward demeanor their arguments are often directed against straw men propositions and are largely baseless when it comes to addressing issues of substance.

The following debate clip shows Debunker Michael Shermer essentially dismissing thousands of credible UFO reports - that include radar tapes, pictures, and close observations by trained observers - proclaiming there is no credible evidence! He also downplays the fact that physical evidence in the hands of the military would be kept hidden. Foolishly he makes ridiculous demands, that he wants ET bodies as proof, which is unlikely if the military is holding any, or if UFOs represent a highly advanced visitation by extra-terrestrial entities, because they would be able to recover them.

In real world science we cannot bottle up certain things, like cosmic particles, and yet we can conduct expensive experiments to detect them:



Notice that despite making highly presumptive arguments, and ignoring data, Shermer remains calm, smiles, laughs (a likely psychological ploy to win the audience) and pushes non specific notions that people are easily mislead, and those believing in UFO reality have an irrational belief in 'little green' men. This is not argument, it is psychology at work.

The Debunkers assert that the whole idea of UFO reality is absurd - something that is only possible if you ignore the accumulated data and go for fallacies of necessities - 'they can't be true because they have not landed on the White House lawn', or 'the public has yet to see wreckage or bodies so therefore all the witnesses and other data cannot represent a real phenomena'.

Obviously something is occurring in our skies to generate the UFO reports. The details of these events, including very close observations, photos, video, and radar recordings, as found in thousands of official reports, show that many of the objects do appear to be types of craft that are not of this world.  That is perhaps the best hypothesis one can make of what has been recorded - certainly it has been the conclusion of many scientists and studies (cited above) that looked into the data.