Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
4 subject as rank nonsense, the product of silly seasons, and a peculiarly American craze that would run its course as all popular crazes do. I was asked by the Air Force 20 years ago to assist them, as an astronomer, in weeding out those reports arising from misidentifica- tion of planets, stars, meteors, and other celestial objects and events. In the course of doing my "homework" I found that some 30 percent of the then current cases very probably had astronomical causes, but my curiosity was aroused by some of the patently nonastronomical reports. These were ostensibly being explained by the consultant psycholo- gist 9 but I frequently had the same feeling about the explanations tn offered for some of these cases that I have had when I have seen a magician saw a woman in half. How he did it was beyond my own field of competence, but I did not question his competence. - Yes, I was quite sure that he did not actually saw the woman in half! My curiosity thus once aroused led me to look into reports other than those of a purely astronomical nature, and in the course of years I have continued to do so. I have pondered over the continuing flow of strange reports from this and a great many other countries, for it is a gross mistake to think that the United States has any exclusive claim to the UFO phenomenon.Those reports which interested me the most—and still do—were those which, apparently written in all seriousness by articulate indi- viduals 9 nonetheless seemed so preposterous as to invite derisive dis- missal by any scientist casually introduced to the subject. Such baffling reports, however, represent a relatively small subset of reports. I did not—and still do not—concern myself with reports which arise from obvious misidentifications by witnesses who are not aware of the many things in the sky today which have a simple, natural explana- tion. These have little scientific value, except perhaps to a sociologist or an ophthalmologist it matters not whether 100 or 100,000 people fail to identify an artificial satellite or a high -altitude balloon. The UFO reports which in my opinion have potential scientific value are those—and this may serve us as a working definition of UFO's—are those reports of aerial phenomena which continue to defy explanation in conventional scientific terms. Many scientists, not familiar with the really challenging UFO data, will not accept the necessity for a high order of scientific inquiry and effort to establish the validity of the data—and therefore such detailed, conscientious, and systematic inquiry has yet to be undertaken. We cannot expect the world of science to take seriously the fare offered at airport newsstands and paperback shelves. I have been asked by some why, as consultant to the Air Force for so many years, I did not alert the scientific world to the possible ser- iousness of the UFO problem years ago. The answer is simple a scientist must try to be sure of his facts. He must not cry wolf" unless he is reasonably sure there is a wolf. I was painfully aware, and still am, of the amorphous nature ofthe UFO data, of the anecdotal nature of UFO reports, of the lack offollowup and serious inquiry into reports (which would have re- quired a large scientific staff and adequate funding), of the lack of hardware, of the lack of unimpeachable photographic evidence, and
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.