“The Advance”52 pages
- p. 7 …of advanced
technological
ma-
chinery
manned by some
kind
of
intelligence,
that
is,
the
extrater-
restrial…
- p. 9 …American Association for the Advancement of Science;
Astronomy Society(secretary).
Specialty: Astrophysics.
Fields of Interest: Stellar…
- p. 19 …The Air Force has no evidence that UFO's are extra-terrestrial or rep-
resent advanced…
- p. 24 18
(The biography of Dr.McDonald follows:)
DR. JAMES E. MCDONAI,D
Born: Duluth, Minn., May…
- p. 29 …from some
advanced
technology
sufficiently
advanced
to
do what
we
cannot
do
in
the
sense
of…
- p. 32 …The
possibility
that these are
extraterrestrial devices,
that
we
are
dealing with
surveillance
from some advanced…
- p. 40 …THE
UNCONVENTIONAL NATURE
OF
THE
UFO
PROBLEM
To
both
laymen
and
scientists,
the
impressive
progress
that…
- p. 48 …At
first,
they thought
it
was
a
jet,
whose
exhaust
was somehow
accounting for the
advancing…
- p. 59 …advanced
civilization
of
extraterrestrial origin,
the
pattern of the observa-
tions,
the motivation of the
surveillance…
- p. 75 …To
ignore
most
of the
salient
features
of
a
sighting
in
order
to
advance
an
easy…
- p. 94 …Now,
if
we
want
to
assess
the
likelihood
that there are
intelligentcivilizations
somewhere
in
advance of…
- p. 95 …be far in advance of our own,and this,therefore raises the
question of how likely…
- p. 96 …that
an advance
civilization
comes here very rarely.
But I
again emphasize the great uncertainty in…
- p. 97 91
So,
to
conclude
what
I
understand
is
the
main
reason
why
this
committee
has
asked…
- p. 100 …the
possibility
of
its
development
by
other
civilizations.
But
if
each
of,
say,
a
million
advanced…
- p. 101 …a race of advanced and benign creatures were devoted
to our welfare.
The interest in unidentified…
- p. 111 …The possible value
of contact for purposes of advancing our knowledge of our technology.
Let's…
- p. 112 …again the same possible great value from under-
standing the phenomenon in order to advance our…
- p. 116 …We
must
then concern ourselves with the
possible
consequences of
contact with
technologically
advanced
civilizations
whose…
- p. 117 111
the task. We must also 'be concerned with the risks of panic resulting in people…
- p. 124 …Gravitation remains one of the enigmas of modern
science,
although
there have been some advances in…
- p. 125 …This
will
depend
upon
advances
in
many
fields
of
science.
Some
of
the
things
required
will…
- p. 130 …Gravitation
remains
one
of the
enigmas
of
modern
science,
although
there
have
been
some
advances
in…
- p. 132 …Baker's
professional
society
memberships
include
the
American
Associa-
tion
for
the
Advancement
of
Science,
Phi…
- p. 140 …There have been many debates on the technical
capabilities or limits on the capabilities of advanced…
- p. 141 135
area of forecasting the social characteristics of an advanced extrater-
restrial civilization. Philosophers, social scientists…
- p. 142 …in the environs
of
the
earth,
or
to
make
dubious
speculations
either
concerning "their"
advanced
scientific…
- p. 143 …the
gross
characteristics
of
an
advanced
civilization.
These
studies
(probablynot
Government funded)
should
include
the
social…
- p. 150 …Applications
and
Advanced Topics,
Academic
Press,
New
York,
pp.
112-115 and
pp.
376
to
392…
- p. 153 147
00015 "Recent Advances in Astrodynamics," (with Samuel Herrick), Jet Propul-
sion, 28, No. 10, 1958…
- p. 154 …00040 "State-of-the-Art-1960 Astrodynamics,"Astronautics, 5, No. 11, 30, 1960.
00041 "Novel Orbit…
- p. 157 …Makemson)
00071 Astrodynamics - Applications and Advanced Topics, Academic Press,
New York, 1967.
00072 "Recent Advances in…
- p. 171 …In the past five
years, he has advanced from assistant bookkeeper to teller to head teller…
- p. 174 …He has no desire to advance any further
up the bank totem pole, says he never…
- p. 189 …advanced radar systems air being de-
vekii2ed for our missile defense systems, such as the ALTAR…
- p. 190 …of the Earth or to make very dubious speculations 191, t101
either concerning "their" advanced scientific…
- p. 203 …The
primary
attribute
of
an
advanced
intelligent civilization
is
its
ability
to create
its
own
environment…
- p. 204 …Menzel became
acting Director
of
Harvard
College
Observatory
and,
in 1954,
was
advanced to the
Directorship…
- p. 207 …approach
it
or
advances
as you
move
away.
As
we
look over the
Air Force
files…
- p. 210 …Or
at
least
that
is
the
com-
mon
argument
advanced
by
UFO
buffs.
Radar
is
cursed…
- p. 212 …Life
Member
of
American
Association
for the
Advancement
of
Science.
Professional Organizational
Activities:
State delegate to…
- p. 217 …our
level
of
advancement?
As
noted
in
the
Special
Report
of the
USAF
Scientific
Advisory
Board…
- p. 219 …Friedman has a relatively unique background in advanced technology, hav-
ing been actively involved in the…
- p. 222 …the
existence
of
advanced
civilizations.
We
frequently
forget that the
resolution
of
present
photographs of the…
- p. 223 …36, 37) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science is
planning a UFO seminar…
- p. 224 …reason,
would
not
examine
the data
relevant to
UFOs
or advanced
technology.
Marcowitz
was
totally
wrong…
- p. 225 …reason,
would
not
examine
the
data
relevant to
UFOs
or
advanced
technology.
Marcowitz
was
totally
wrong…
- p. 226 …B.,
"The
Phenomenological
Aspects
of
Magnetogasdynamic
Re-entry."
Presented
at
the 10th
Midwestern Mechanics
Conference,
Colorado…
- p. 227 …not
alone
in
the Universe
and
surely
some
civilizations
are
more
advanced than
ours,
but
interstellar…
- p. 233 …possible
sites
in
advance,
we
could
simply
move
in
to
recover
the
desired
information
after
an…
- p. 234 …The effectiveness of the proposed procedure would depend very heavily upon
the amount of thought, care…
- p. 237 …listed
in
advance
on
a
'standardized rating sheet.
However
this
part
of
the
experiment
will
not…
101
Second, what are the probable consequences from the point of view
of a sociologist or social psychologist of each of the major
explanations?
And third,I would like to comment quite explicitly on the hypothe-
sis that mass hysteria and hysterical contagion is common in many of
the cases.
I believe I should start with the mass hysteria hypothesis. To begin
with, I think there is very strong evidence that some of the cases do
result from hysterical contagion in the sense that this has often been
used by social psychologists. Once people are sensitized to the exist-
ence of some kind of a phenomenon (whether indeed it really exists
or not), when there is an ambiguous situation requiring explanation,
when there is emotion or anxiety associated with this, resulting from
the uncertainty, there are precisely the conditions that have been
observed repeatedly as resulting in what I shall call "improvised
news." Lacking well-verified facts and explanations, people always
seem to generate the news and the explanations that will reduce the
ambiguity, thereby reduce the anxiety they have about uncertain
situations.
There are many well-documented cases of this kind of mass hysteria
and hysterical contagion. I believe it will be out of place for me to
go into lengthy discussions of these episodes, but I shall comment on
a few ways in which we can examine the observations of unidentified
flying objects to assess whether this is a reasonable hypothesis for the
hard-core cases.
One of the first of these is one thoroughly familiar to attorneys,
;social psychlogists having no monopoly on an interest in the credibility
of testimony, but this is one of the principal means obviously of
establishing whether we should reasonably believe certain explanations.
The criteria, as most of you know, involve such things as the
established reputation of the witnesses, the quality and details of the
report, whether there are apparent motives for distortion or prevari-
cation, whether there was preexisting knowledge of the thing being
reported, whether there were multiple witnesses and whether there
was contact among these multiple witnesses, whether observation was
through more than one medium (for example, direct visual observation
confirmed by radar) whether there were verifiable effects that could
be observed after the reporting by witnesses, recently of the events
being reported, the duration of the period in which the witness was
able to observe the phenomenon how the witnesses reacted, whether
they had intense anxiety and emotion themselves, which might inter-
fere with their observation, and so forth.
These are some of the major factors, and a closely related factor in
assessing the credibility of the testimony is of course an assessment
of the care in gathering the testimony by interviewers themselves.
How does the testimony on hard-core UFO cases look with reference
to these criteria? I should say that there is a substantial subset of cases
which look very good on these criteria, which make it very difficult to
say that the witnesses involved were victims of hysterical contagion,
grossly misinterpreting familiar things.
For example, there is the Red Bluff, Calif., case in 1960, where two
policemen observed for 2 hours and 15 minutes constantly, apparently