James E. McDonald statement, Symposium on UFOs, House Committee on Science and Astronautics

5. Problem of witness' prior knowledge of UFO knowledge:
In interviewing UFO witnesses, it is important to try to ascertain whether the witness was, prior to his reported
sighting, familiar or unfamiliar with books and writings on UFOs. Although a strong degree of familiarity with the
literature of UFOs does not negate witness testimony, it dictates caution. Anyone who has done a lot of interviewing
at the local level, involving previously unsifted cases, will be familiar with occasional instances where the witness
exhibited such an obvious enthusiasm for the UFO problem that prudence demanded rejection of his account.
However, in my own experience, a much more common reaction to questions concerning pre-sighting interest in
UFO matters is some comment to the effect that the witness not only knew little about UFOs beyond what he'd
happened to read in newspapers, but he was strongly disinclined to take the whole business seriously. The
repetitiveness and yet the spontaneity with which witnesses of seeming high credibility make statements similar to,
"I didn't believe there was anything to all the talk about UFOs until I actually saw this thing," is a notable feature of
the interview-experience of all of the investigators with whom I have talked. Obviously, an intending prevaricator
might seek to deceive his interrogator by inventing such an assertion; but I can only say that suspicion of being so
duped has not been aroused more than once or twice in all of the hundreds of witnesses I have interviewed. On the
other hand, I suppose that, in several dozen instances, I have lost interest in a case because of a witness openly
stressing his own prior and subsequent interest in the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
Occasionally one encounters witnesses for whom the chance of prior knowledge is so low as to be almost amusing.
An Anglican missionary in New Guinea, Rev. N. E. G. Cruttwell (Ref. 9), who has done much interviewing of UFO
witnesses in his area, has described testimony of natives who come down into the mission area from their highland
home territory only when they are wallaby-hunting, natives who could not read UFO reports in any language of the
world, yet who come around, in their descriptions of what they have seen, to the communications-shortcut of
picking up a bowl or dish from a nearby table to suggest the shape they are seeking to describe in native tongue.
Little chance of bias gained from reading magazines in a barber-chair in such instances.
6. Types of UFO accounts of present interest:
The scope of the present statement precludes anything approaching an exhaustive listing of categories of UFO
phenomena: much of what might be made clear at great length will have to be compressed into my remark that the
scientific world at large is in for a shock when it becomes aware of the astonishing nature of the UFO phenomenon
and its bewildering complexity. I make that terse comment well aware that it invites easy ridicule; but intellectual
honesty demands that I make clear that my two years' study convinces me that in the UFO problem lie scientific and
technological questions that will challenge the ability of the world's outstanding scientists to explain - as soon as
they start examining the facts.
a) Lights in the night sky.
("DLs" as they are called by the NICAP staff, on the basis that the profusion of reports of "damnable lights"
meandering or hovering or racing across the night sky in unexplainable manner are one of the most common, yet
one of the least useful and significant categories of UFO reports.) Ultimately, I think their significance could
become scientifically very substantial when instrumental observing techniques are in wide use to monitor UFO
movements. But there are many ways that observers can be misled by lights in the night sky, so I shall discuss below
only such few cases as are of extremely unconventional nature and where the protocols of the observations are
unusually strong.
b) Close-range sightings of wingless discs and cigar-shaped objects.
This category is far more interesting. Many are daytime sightings, many have been made by witnesses of quite high
credibility. Structural details such as "ports" and "legs" (to use the terms the witnesses have adopted to suggest most
closely what they think they have seen) are described in many instances. Lack of wings and lack of evident means of
propulsion clearly rule out conventional aircraft and helicopters. Many are soundless, many move at such speeds and