Documents / FOIA release
This undated National Security Agency paper, released by the NSA in 2017 under a Mandatory Declassification Review, argues that people's reactions to UFO sightings expose an intelligence community weakness: analysts cannot process surprising or deceptive data objectively. Citing Dr. Jacques Vallee, it describes how the mind reacts with shock and imaginative distortion as observations grow stranger. It recommends selecting and training analysts for special surprise alert teams. An appendix lists historical military defeats blamed on blindness to surprise.
Doc ID: 6577932
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tJFO's/;nd the Intelligence Cornr.iunity Blind Spot to Surprise
or Deceptive D�tl]
implications of the · UFO phenonena go far beyond the
enoroena itself·. The human incapacity to ob:ectivel process
a serious we3-".:!les s in the intelligen ,.. ..ir.,unity.
rerr.edied and quickl e United States
opriately to surprise attack
ind·icators. T "''"""'_., ...., k is such a be.sic ingrca.ient
of mili:tary · succ to rely o dependable hur.ian
ne ·inability o:f most men .to-obj,ectively proce d
highly unusual data and to react.to the data in
2. Scientific Findings: Dr. Jacaues Vallee* f2Jned ccrtlllurJicaticns
science expert has studied. thousands of cases where bu.man beings h?..ve
obser:�d unusual pheno:-::ena. He he-s :fou.."ld th::.t the human response to
such obs'ervetion is predir.table end: graphic�lly depicteble. Whether
the person• s psycholoeical struct.ure is being .essaulted by the ·,!...11usual
and shocking brutelity of e. murder or·tbe strangeness of a UFO sigr.ting.
the effect is the seme:
a., Initie.lly as by a kind o:f p5yc.hologica.l interia, t!1e mind
reGoras iairly 0bjectively �bat the eye is reporting.*
b. But vhen it has realized the strange nature cf the· phe:non..ena
it goes into shock. 'The mind lil:es to live in a· comforta·::>le vorld
whe'!"e it reels it kno'WS what to expect, and that,. is not too th:-eatenir,g
either physically or ps:i�chologice.J.ly. 'lne u."lusu.al dispells the
comfortable illusion the mind has created.. 'Ibis shock te�r3 at t�,e very
mooring o:f1 the h'.I!!ian -::,sychological structure.*
c. To protect itself s.gainst such a.n intrusive and thre�tening
reality the mind will beein to add imagination and interpret�tion to
�he incoffiing data to make it more aeceptable. Since the mind is doing
ell this i.n haste some of the hurriJ.ly aided dete.ils anci. suggestions
tuinble ov:er one another e.nd contradict one another in a. bi'z�are .fashion
(as any police o:fficer inte�roge.ting murder 'Witnesses ��11 tell you*)
(See Chart A).
d. · On�e the inind has constructed. a "safe" fror.e-..0ork :f'or tlie
new infonnation it may see.in peek out and collect some oore objective
data. If the data ie still threatening it ��ll agein go into shock
and tbe process starts·all over again.*
e. If the data is at the highest strangness level �here it
prings terror either:
{1) Tne r:in:i will pass out and go into c>_'llnesia hurying
the events perhaps perr:oanently in the unconscious.*
of.!PS;:·r
Approved for Release by NSA on 07-18-2017 pursuant to E.O. 13526; MDR Case 100625
., Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the nsa collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 7 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.