On my website
http://www.debunker.com, I have recently began scanning and posting PDF files of some of the more
significant correspondence and other historical documents in my private collection. (That's one reason I haven't posted much here recently). These papers involve such well-known UFOlogists and UFO witnesses as Philip J. Klass, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Dr. James E. McDonald, Dr. Carl Sagan, Dr. Thornton Page, Dr. David Jacobs, Lonnie Zamora, Capt. Lawrence Coyne, etc. I first began corresponding with Philip J. Klass in 1968, and we stayed in touch until his death in 2005.
Klass' papers were then donated to the American Philosophical Society, where they can be requested by researchers willing to travel to Philadelphia to see them, or to pay the associated fees to have copies sent. My intention is to post all of the most significant UFO related papers, especially Klass' "White Papers," on my website.
 |
| Philip J. Klass |
At present, here are some of the more interesting and significant papers:
- My paper recounting a talk that the famed UFOlogist J. Allen Hynek gave at Northwestern in 1969 as "freshman orientation."
- While I was at Northwestern in 1970, Dr. J. Allen Hynek allowed me to read a chapter of the book he was working on, The UFO Experience. Here are my comments to him about it, Hynek's reply, Klass' comment on it, and the note Hynek inserted in his book to answer my critique.
- Klass' highly-controversial "White Papers" about atmospheric physicist and UFO proponent Dr. James E. McDonald (1968). Many pro-UFOlogists have accused Klass of unfairly 'hounding' the poor Dr. McDonald (most notably, Anne Druffel in her book Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science), implying that Klass had a role in driving McDonald to his tragic suicide in 1971. For the first time, Klass' own papers on the subject are now available to researchers.
- Klass' letter to "Plasmarians" complaining about the pro-ETI 'stacked deck' of the forthcoming AAAS-sponsored UFO Symposium in Boston (Nov. 18, 1969). Note that Klass includes Carl Sagan among the pro-ETI panelists. This is not a mistake. In testimony to the 1968 hearings before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Carl Sagan said: "I might mention that, on this symposium, there are no individuals who strongly disbelieve in the extraterrestrial origin of UFO's and therefore there is a certain view, not necessarily one I strongly agree with -- but there is a certain view this committee is not hearing today, along those lines."
- Klass' talk to the Maryland Seminar on Science and Technology, UFOs, "N-Rays" and Pathological Science (Dec. 18, 1969). Discusses Blondlot, Hynek, Socorro, James E. McDonald, Heflin, Father Gill, Trent.
- The Socorro UFO Case, and its "Multiplying Multiple Tourist Witnesses" (Aug. 29, 1976). Examines inconsistencies in the claim that one or more unnamed tourists also witnessed the UFO allegedly seen by Officer Lonnie Zamora in Socorro on April 24, 1964.
- Capt. Lawrence Coyne's Views on UFOs and his own experience before he and his crew won the "National Enquirer" best case award of $5,000 (Dec. 31, 1976). There's nothing like fame and money to cement a UFO witness' story.
- PJK critiques of Hynek's perceived inconsistencies (1975-83). Hynek's ever-changing "UFO Invariant."
There will be more papers to follow, that I will post as time permits
Guys: I have over 1200 hours flying Hueys like CPT Coyne's Helicopter. No one ever mentions the Green Window!! The two windows on the roof were tinted green, heavily...When I read this account, I wondered why none of the "experts" mentioned this in endorsing this ordinary occurance?? This might account for the "Mysterious Green Light" that was mentioned in the Nat'l Enq. story...
ReplyDeleteDale
BTW: I am not attacking the real experts here, just the "self appointed" UFO types...Sorry if that was not clear..
ReplyDeleteDale
Klass mentions the Green Window. In a note on page 340 of the hardcover edition of UFOs Explained, Klass writes "Subsequently I discovered that the overhead portion of the helicopter's transparent canopy is tinted green for protection against intense sunlight. This means that even a white luminous tail of a fireball could have caused the green illumination inside the cockpit."
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for taking the time to scan and post these PDFs Robert.
ReplyDeleteWithout wishing to sound ungrateful for the PDFs you have posted already, I impatiently look forward to seeing more!
Incidentally, if it would speed things up to have other people assist you with the tedious task of scanning documents just let me know. I'm fairly sure I can find some volunteer(s) in your area from one of the UFO groups/forum with whom I am in contact. I'll quite understand if you'd rather not risk other people handling your historical documents.
All the best,
Isaac
In relation to the last item currently on your historical UFO documents page (i.e. "J. Allen Hynek conveniently "forgets" his own UFO sighting; Philip J. Klass reminds him (Aug. 9, 1983). See also p. 39 of my book Psychic Vibrations."), ironically the reminder from Klass which comments on age taking its toll on memory cells includes a mistake. Klass mistakenly attributes a page from the book "Edge of Reality" by Hynek and Vallee to a book written by Hynek alone, "The UFO Experience".
ReplyDeleteSome relevant references and some expressions of frustration are included in my post at:
http://ufoupdateslist.com/2011/oct/m25-009.shtml
Do you happen to have the Skeptical Inquirer reference for the material on page 39 of your book "Psychic Vibrations", to add to my notes on this topic?
Of course, if Klass obtained a response then I'd be delighted to see it...
Robert - Please ignore my earlier query (above) about the Skeptical Inquirer reference for the material on page 39 of your book. I've found the relevant item in the Skeptical Inquirer (Volume 8, Number 4, Summer 1984, page 306).
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Isaac
Isaac,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comments on this matter. I know nothing more about the Hynek "UFO photos" than is already in the document. What Klass says about photos 9 and 10 in "The UFO Experience" is correct, however Hynek is cagey about the attribution of the photos in that book, then finally admits they're his in "The Edge of Reality." Hynek was not one to respond to critics unless absolutely necessary, if there had been a Hynek response to Klass it would have been included in my PDF.
If Vallee and Timmerman do not know when the photos were taken, then I doubt if anybody else does. Incidentally, I have seen similar things looking out an airplane window. My hypothesis is: this is an another aircraft flying parallel to the one Hynek is in, that looks distorted because of optical effects at the edge of the window. Probably somebody who was a "frequent flier" and sat at the window a lot could get similar photos if he kept his camera ready.
The Skeptical Inquirer issue in which 'Hynek Forgets' appeared in Psychic Vibrations was Summer, 1984. The Toronto Globe and Mail article, appearing in the PDF document, was July 5, 1982. The referenced Chicago Tribune article about Hynek needing a Close Encounter with money was Feb. 27, 1983. Maybe I should do another PDF on early CUFOS issues, I'd need to get some permissions though for some things I want to include.
By the way, you are mentioned on page 27 of my book Psychic Vibrations, for your work on the Weisbaden "alien photo." Good job!
As for the claims about the "Pentacle memorandum", I know nothing about this. I presume it was associated with the production of Special Report 14 at Battelle, so I don't see why it is so significant or surprising. Hynek occasionally talked about the work he did during WWII, it was not concealed. I think that almost every physical scientist at the time was involved in some sort of defense-related project. I seriously doubt Dolan's statement that "Hynek's substantial Air Force money was passed to him through a third party." I saw no evidence that Hynek was living an opulent lifestyle, and I was over to his house several times. He was seemingly no different from the other professors. I seriously doubt that Hynek was involved in any other "hidden" UFO research.
I appreciate your offer of assistance in scanning documents. Actually, the scanning itself takes very little time. Mostly it's the sorting through files, finding the important papers, deciding what to scan, which papers to bundle together, etc. So I don't think it would help much to have assistance. It's not a question of having a big bundle of documents that all need to be scanned. It's more like sorting through pitchblende for radium, as Hynek used to say. The old "signal and noise" problem.
Isaac and others,
ReplyDeleteI just ran across an item in an old journal, apparently referring to a SECOND UFO sighting by Hynek, this one where he supposed saw a jet in pursuit of a UFO! I have added it to the existing PDF of "Hynek Forgets His UFO" (http://www.debunker.com/historical/HynekForgetsHisUFO.pdf ).
I see you're creating searchable pdfs like the ones in the Skeptical Inquirer archive. Excellent. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteRobert: Thanks for pointing out the window tint reference to me, ever since this incident I have wondered about the absence of mention. I was an Aviator at the time, and most of my fellow Army Aviators thought the same thing.....Many of us saw some unusual things, but I cannot think of any sighting that was truely unexplainable by common logic and scientific facts...
ReplyDeleteBTW: If my ancient computer would let me, I would not post as anonymous....I am lucky that I can even do this post!!
Dale
Yes, Hynek did report a SECOND UFO sighting, this one to Blue Book. I have again updated the existing PDF of "Hynek Forgets His UFO" (http://www.debunker.com/historical/HynekForgetsHisUFO.pdf ). Thanks to Isaac Koi for sending it.
ReplyDeleteWhile on the subject of Hynek's sightings, didn't Donald Menzel have two sightings? I know he explained one as the star Sirius, but what about the other (I've forgotten the details)? Why would Menzel, even for only a short period, be baffled by Sirius anyway?
ReplyDeleteRobert - Hynek (reportedly) had more than these two experiences. I'm still trying to track down more information.
ReplyDeleteChristopher - Menzel also had more than two sightings. He discusses several in his books and some of them appear in the Project Bluebook files. As to whether they were of "UFOs", well, that depends on your definition of "UFO" and your view of what Menzel saw. I found the Project Bluebook file in relation to one of Menzel's sightings to be hilarious. Again, I'm still trying to find more information/documentation.
I am currently finalising my notes for an item on "Astronomers and UFOs", which mainly focuses on some of the statistical issues involved (i.e. the surveys by Sturrock, Gert Herb, Hynek and Pittella) but also includes information on a few examples of relevant sightings (including by Tombaugh, Menzel and Hynek).
Although some of these sightings are commonly mentioned in discussions on the Internet, quite a bit of the relevant documentation does not appear to have been published on-line (or, in many cases, in the printed material I've seen).
Isaac,
ReplyDeleteYou could well be correct about Hynek. I suspect there is a lot more to be found out about this guy. Let me share with you an interesting (historical) anecdote. I think it was when I was in the Student Organized Seminar of UFOs at Northwestern, one cold Chicago evening we were standing outside the building, waiting to get in. I think that the room we were supposed to use was locked, and Hynek had to call security to open it for us - something like that. And Fred Beckmann (of the University of Chicago) was there, he came to talk to us. He was Hynek's UFO colleague, and I recall him coming there more than once.
It was very clear and cold and we were standing around shivering and looking at distant airplane lights while we waiting to get in. And Beckmann said "look at those lights - those are unusual." "No, they're just airplane lights," Hynek said. "Look at them," Beckmann said, "those are unusual, they are anomalous..." "Hmmmmm... maybe they are pretty anomalous," Hynek said. And right at that moment, two airplanes banked toward O'Hare Field, and clearly revealed their identities. In other words, Hynek was easily swayed by others' statements, and joined in the delusion.
I'd love to see your final report on Menzel's UFOs. I had no idea that he had seen so much weird stuff. I don't know if he meant "here is something that might be anomalous," or "here is an example of a mirage that might fool people." I suspect the latter, but who knows for sure? " I did have some correspondence with Menzel, and also talked with him on the phone a few times, we never met in person. I do have a few letters from Menzel, eventually I'll get them scanned and posted. Nothing pertaining to any of his sightings, though.
I did meet Menzel's co-author Ernst "Pancho" Taves several times, he used to come to CSICOP conferences.
Lots to read, thanks for sharing. I really love the NSA document for the 60's.
ReplyDeleteThat Klass one-pager on Coyne is disappointing, and better suited to a creationist than a serious investigator. It also displays a seeming ignorance of basic psychology. We're meant to discredit the crew of the helicopter because of three blurbs where Coyne says:
ReplyDeleteA) That he doesn't believe in "UFOs and space monsters"
B) That he would "like" to believe it was an F-100; that that would be "logical" (even though no such F-100 was found). OK...
C) He says "well, that would sound like a logical explanation" and "no, it sounds good" to Klass's meteor explanation... even though we're not told whether he's agreeing with Klass's explanation of the other man's sighting, or of Coyne's own sighting.
Some important questions for a real investigator to ask would be: What did Coyne *say he saw* before he received the UFO prize. Not, "can I find three cherry-picked quotes that show he wasn't as disturbed, convinced, or resistant to my prosaic explanations as he would've been if he'd seen it."
The way debunkers attack a UFO witness's character bears a curious resemblance to the way rape victims are questioned. All the statements in that note are completely plausible, if we had nothing but the reported case details and Klass's note. Studies have also shown that witnesses in court will often agree with statements made by their questioners--you can get most people to say "yeah, sounds logical" to almost anything.
The sighting was documented prior to Klass's chat on the phone. If he had changed his description of the UFO, that would be interesting and I'd like to see it. Hunting around for on-the-record inconsistencies in a witness's attitude towards a description that didn't change, so you can use them against the witness's own description, even though a witness with the goal of fabricating could easily fabricate the necessary attitude... well, that sounds like apologetics to me.