"According to Bill Knell, our guest writer for today, the truth is in the eye of the beholder. "
The truth is definitely somewhere... the problem being, of course ("and Ufology is one of the many areas where that happens"), that we all have a different idea of what it actually is.
But, things are ("slowly but surely") changing and what looked like Sci-Fi stuff a few decades ago, are now accepted as possible...
"Well, as long as they're not UFO related, that is."
"Enjoy..."
LOUP DARGENT
UFO RESEARCH: TRUTH IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER"Bill Knell"
"What is truth?" Thanks to inclusion in the Bible of aconfrontation between Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ, thisquestion or answer is possibly the most famous statement evermade on the subject. Pilate's definition of truth was whateversuited his agenda. That definition is still used for the samepurpose by many today.
The subject of UFOs and Aliens may or may not reach the eternalimportance of the argument between Pontius Pilate and JesusChrist depending on who you talk to, but the search for thetruth about them receives the same manipulation. For example,when UFO Organizations meet for conferences and symposiums, theyoften hang banners that say, "The Truth is Out There" or"Searching for the Truth"." But what truth are they looking for?
I was an avid reader of books about unidentified flyingobjects, extra-terrestrials and other paranormal phenomenon asan adolescent. When I began my own paranormal research andinvestigation as a teenager, I decided to be as objective aspossible. The truth I was looking for was less theory and morefacts. Facts are objective until we decide to interpret them.
Today, many UFO researchers view the phenomenon as a buffettable. They pick and choose what they decide is credible andthrow out the rest. Their search for the truth only includesthose facts that they can or will accept. I can't tell you howmany important cases came my way ("and still do") because othersin this field simply turned their noses up at the source ornature of the information.
I am not going to tell you that I initially appreciated,believed or even liked some of the cases or individuals that Ihave investigated over the years. I am also not going to tellyou that everything reported to me always turned out to be true.Instead, I'll tell you that it is a mistake to prejudgeinformation based on some pet theory or desire to retain acertain image for yourself or your organization.
Sometimes I believe that the original mainstream UFOorganizations invented the idea of political correctness.Blasted by the press and scolded by scientists, most decidedthat if you can't beat them, join them. They began to pander toreporters, journalists, scientists and skeptics. And not justpander.
It wasn't long before the notoriously skeptical, oftenwishy-washy and always ideologically-driven scientific communitybecame the litmus test for UFO evidence credibility. If ascientist could not find a way to fit the facts of any givencase into some current scientific theory or model, it didn'texist. The truth became whatever they said it was and the onlyinformation accepted the mainstream UFO research community wasthat which survived scientific sifting.
I am not the kind of person that believes there are no absolutetruths and that life is one big grey area. However, I alsobelieve that science is a long way from understanding the natur those truths, being able to interpret them as a formula on achalk board or reproduce them in a laboratory. Science is whatwe think we know about our existence. It provides a means for usto discover and use certain principles for better or worse. Itshould never be considered a final authority to judge what webelieve to be true.
Most scientists ignore facts that go against their grain ofestablished beliefs until those facts can no longer be ignored.It is process of knowledge and information forced one way oranother by the whims and egos of academics. It's Investigationby Debunking. Instead of proving something exists, let's proveit doesn't and whatever remains is worthy of consideration. Itis, literally, backward thinking and exclusionary research.
Investigating paranormal or supernatural events requiressomething more than Debunking. It requires the ability to admitthat not everything is always as it seems and sometimes thingsoccur that are beyond our ability to immediately comprehendthem. One of the greatest lessons that I have learned as aresult of paranormal investigation is that anything is possible.
When I first began to investigate the Philadelphia Experiment,I was warned not to take it seriously by most in the field ofUFO investigation. Although witnesses were few and scattered andthe information seemed spurious, not all the news was bad. Whiledenying that it ever occurred, the Office of Naval Researchbegan an investigation in 1957 which involved people that becameaware of it and the information they possessed. It's always beenmy belief that if you wanted to find a buried bone, you shouldfollow the dog that buried it.
While it's possible that the ONR was simply unaware of theexperiment and decided to take a look at the matter, it'sunlikely. Investigations on that level were not initiatedwithout careful consideration and approval from superiorofficers in charge. The government interest in the PhiladelphiaExperiment was reason enough to begin following their trail.Part of that trail lead to Morris K. Jessup, an author andamateur astronomer that ended up dead under suspiciouscircumstances. And that was just the beginning.
The Philadelphia Experiment was said to have somehow involvedUFOs and Aliens from the very beginning. Allegedly began as aWorld War II Navy Project to demagnetize ships against mines andmake the vessels radar invisible, it progressed to a point wherea ship became invisible, opened a door in hyperspace, traveledthrough time and returned. Alien contact was made somewherealong the way and their technology was eventually included infuture projects based on those original experiments in the1940s.
Despite the ONR interest, suspicious death of Jessup, alieninvolvement and other factors that made the experiment worthy ofinvestigation, most in the establishment UFO research communitychose to ignore it. I believe that choice was based largely onthe opinion of scientists that lined up dozens deep to explainwhy it was simply wasn`t possible to conduct such an experimentin the early 1940s. Today, many scientists are no longer arguingover the possibility of invisibility, time travel and mindcontrol, they are busy arguing over which theory about theseconcepts makes the most sense and how much it will cost to buildthe equipment they will need to prove it.
Because they have placed their trust in shaky science, we haveended up with useless Ufology. Over the past thirty years I havewitnessed various establishment UFO research organizationsembrace cases with dubious photographic evidence and very littlewitness credibility simply because they couldn't find a way torecreate the photos in a controlled environment. When thesecases ultimately fell apart or someone found little UFO modelsin a garbage can, all UFO and paranormal researchers suffered aserious loss of credibility.
While embracing what seemed like obvious hoaxes to experiencedUFO investigators, these same mainstream UFO researchorganizations and the individuals that hover around them wherequick to denounce almost every government whistleblower thatcame along and all the cases they brought with them. The RoswellUFO Crash is a good case example.
In February of 1978, Jesse Marcel placed a phone call to a UFOresearcher associated with several mainstream UFO researchorganizations. He told the researcher that he had seen andhandled wreckage from the Roswell event. Marcel was certain thiswas not simply material from a weather or radar balloon. Littlewas done about this for a year until an author that knew the UFOresearcher dug up some old news clippings about Marcel inFebruary of 1979. At that point, the researcher took a moreserious interest in the case.
The author was Bill Moore who ultimately published The RoswellIncident. He completed the manuscript for the book withouthaving ever visited Roswell. It's important to understand thatMajor Jesse Marcel was an intelligence officer directly involvedwith the Roswell UFO Crash. He had been making the claim thatthe Roswell material was not conventional since 1970. I can saywith great surety that if I had been made aware of these claims,I would not have ignored them or waited until someone gave me agrant to investigate them.
Up until Marcel's revelations about the possibility that a realAlien Spacecraft crashed near Roswell, NM, in 1947, theestablishment UFO research community considered the matter caseclosed. They apparently accepted the government version of whathappened and looked at the story as a legendary non-event thathad been resurrected by a passing mention in a book by FrankScully long after the incident actually occurred.
History repeated itself in 1997 when retired Army ColonelPhilip Corso came forward and told his own story about theRoswell Crash. Corso was not just some guy off the street.Despite amazing credentials, the media portrayed him as justanother UFO witness with a story that went against thegovernment version of what happened.
Instead of immediately coming to Corso's defense, most in theestablishment UFO research community were slow to react andstill fussing over a 1994 government statement which providedanother one of many explanations for Roswell. This time highaltitude balloons with crash test dummies were blamed for theUFO crash story. The only problem was that such tests weren'tactually conducted until years after the 1947 UFO crash. Corsoprobably had no idea that the only way to get noticed bymainstream Ufology was to make his story known to them first.Because he didn't, their pundits attacked.
The Corso book was said to nothing more than a retelling offacts, theories and information already provided in bookspublished by (you guessed it) researchers and authors associatedwith mainstream UFO research organizations. Of course the onlyones that probably saw it that way were the pundits. From theirstandpoint, Corso should have contacted them, told his story andallowed them to write the book.
U.S. Government Whistleblowers like Robert Lazar, John Lear andBill English all received the same treatment by the mainstreamUFO research organizations. That treatment ran the gamut frombeing almost completely ignored, to barely tolerated to beinglargely discredited. Lazar had impressive academic credentialsand was the former employee of a major government contractor,while Lear was an experienced Pilot with government connectionsand English had an impressive military background.
The truth is out there and we're not going to find it byignoring evidence or individuals that do not fit our agendas,belittling witnesses that happen to contact other UFOorganizations or attempting to debunk evidence before weinvestigate it. The truth is only elusive to those who fail tounderstand that facts are objective under we try and shape themto fit our needs.
"About The Author: "Author: Bill Knell is a popular author, speaker and consultant.
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