Documents / Hearing transcript

Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

U.S. House of Representatives · 1968-07-29 · 256 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

Open the PDF at page 180 Original source ↗

“Nevers”43 pages

  • p. 12 …in a peasant society whose eyes were never turned toward the skies. Can we afford not…
  • p. 13 …for a proper and definitive study will never develop. I recall an encounter I had sometime…
  • p. 16 …A very character- istic statement by those making the reports is: "I have never seen anything…
  • p. 18 …They also usually request anonymity which is always granted. (4) UFO's are never seen at…
  • p. 19 …Other misconceptions are that UFO's are never reported by scien- tifically trained people, are never…
  • p. 20 …it has never been considered worthwhile to improve the data -gathering process because the whole subject…
  • p. 27 …he is looking at something he has never seen before. I like Dr. Hynek's phrase…
  • p. 37 …at the Ontario Hydro Commission plant has never been identified, but initially thetentative suspicion was centered…
  • p. 39 …cover- ing innumerable intriguing cases I had never before heard of, and (above all) after the…
  • p. 43 …diminish in sig- nificance, though they can never be overlooked. A frequent objection to serious consideration…
  • p. 45 …out- of-the-way rural areas but never over large cities? Why don't large groups…
  • p. 48 …Smith emphasized that they were never certain of sizes and distances, but that they had the…
  • p. 53 …is deceased), I believe that there has never been any dispute as to the observed facts…
  • p. 59 …Many other sources could be cited to show that the intimation that UFOs are never seen…
  • p. 65 …After the 'official "explanation" was publicized, he decided he'd never report another one. I predict…
  • p. 68 …In the ensuing two decades, he has never again seen anything like it. Clearly, the probability…
  • p. 69 …Moore never got a sufficiently clear view to identify any finer details if any were present…
  • p. 75 …the past twenty years, cases that ought never have been so labelled, had the evaluators kept…
  • p. 76 …Ground radar stations never detected the unknown that was seen visually and contacted by airborne radar…
  • p. 77 …strong, bright pips, said that "anomalous propagation never entered our heads as an explanation." Howard S…
  • p. 78 …7) but could never close with the unknown as its continued on its north- bound course…
  • p. 80 …All three said they had never before seen anything like it. Munger decided to phone his…
  • p. 81 …The photos were shortly taken by Base military authorities and were never seen again by the…
  • p. 87 …referred to repeatedly in Menzel's writings, never with any quantitative discussion of precisely what he…
  • p. 100 …visual observations of classical UFO's have never been made by profes- sional astronomers. For example…
  • p. 101 …how the promised political or social intervention never materializes. Psychological Factors. The psychologist Carl Jung pointed…
  • p. 125 …Oh, heavens, I never suggested that, I hope. Mr. BOONE. Well, let me say, science fiction…
  • p. 159 …He has not ever been exposed to any toxic substances, has never had to take any…
  • p. 168 …He said he had never had the experience of deja-vu episodes or of performing acts…
  • p. 171 …It never occurred to him to call anyone else's attention to the light (probably because…
  • p. 172 …He had never seen anything like it before and in fact had never previously had the…
  • p. 173 …He has taken only two sick days in the entire five years and is never late…
  • p. 174 …He never has fantasied actively taking his own life, however, and feels it would be very…
  • p. 175 …He never was one to participate in extracurricular activities, but always maintained a part-time job…
  • p. 176 …Prior to seeing that light, he apparently never experienced a deja vu, or any illusory or…
  • p. 194 …If the observer being studied is truly sociopathic and has never de- veloped a super -ego…
  • p. 203 197 This data, which most people have never seen or even heard of, is published in…
  • p. 206 …They never have had enough sCientists in the project. They have failed to follow up certain…
  • p. 221 …Isn't it true that UFOs have never been sighted on radar? No, it is not…
  • p. 243 …make such an all- inclusive negative statement. Never- theless, many of the arguments are highly compelling…
  • p. 244 …A balloon reported as a UFO was never out of sight of its launchers. A perplexing…
  • p. 247 …al- though he apologizes because he has never had the time to make a thorough search…
  • p. 249 …two leads appeared, but other witnesses could never be located), but his ap- parent sincerity was…
174
THE
USE
OF
PROBABILITY SCORING FOR
OBSERVATIONAL CREDITABILITY
In
order
to
translate
the
results
of
an
extensive, multispecialty
medicalevaluation
into
a
handy
estimate
of
observer creditability,
a
percentage
-
evaluation scoring method
has
been devised. These "probability
of
creditability"
scores
are
mainly
intended
to
serve
the non
-
,
medical expert.
They are
numericalstatements reflecting
the
level
and quality
of
observational
ability
and
are
based
on all
the
obtained
findings
relative
to
central
nervous
system integrity.
The
scores
will
be
presented
in
conjunction
with
(not
in
place
of)
summaries
of
the
results
of
each
part
of
the medical
assessment
(i.e.,
medical, neurological,neuro-ophthalmological,
and psychiatric)
of
an individual
observer.
A
composite
score
will also be
offered
to
suggest
the
overall
level
of
observational credita-bility.
This
final
score
is
based
on
careful scrutiny, extrapolation, and
inter-
pretative
integration
of
all
the
findings
at
hand, as they
would
be
expected
to
influence
(in
a
highly multifactorial
way) any
reported observations.
The
nature and
extent
of
an
individual's abnormalities
will
thus
be
reflected
in
his creditability
score(s),
a
scale
for
which has been
set
up
as follows:
Degree
of
Impairment Creditability Score
none
95%
mild
75%
moderate
50%
severe
25%
extreme
5%The
scores
will be
variably useful, depending
on their
applicability
to
the
situation
in
question.
It
is
expected
that they will
be helpful
in
thescreening and selection
of
candidates
for
observational jobs
(i.e.,
predictive
evaluations).
They
will
usually be more reliable
as measures
of
creditability,
however,
when they are
part
of
a
retrospective evaluation
that is
being done on
an
individual
who
has already reported
a
particular event. This
is
because
theexaminer-scorer
is
able
to
avail himself
of
specific observational material onwhich
to
"zero
in"
and check
out,
including occassional clues
to
physical
and
psychological pathology.
In
those instances where there are different stories
from several individuals
who
report having witnessed
the same event,
the
value
of
the creditability scoring can be further demonstrated
for
sorting
out con-flicting data.
It
is
repleily
acknowledged
that
this scoring method
is
somewhat arbitrary.
Its
reliability and reproducibility
will
depend largely on the sophistication
and
the
abilities
of the
scorer.
It
is
essential that the
physician
doing these
studies have
1)
a
high-level working knowledge of the
four
specialties involved,
that
he
2)
be specifically well-informed
in the
pertinent interdisciplinary
material related
to
observational phenomena, and
that he
3)
be adept
in the
matter of investigating, synthesizing, interpreting, and finally applying theramifications
of his "pure" medical findings
to
observational situations.
It
is
further recommended
that
4)
he himself be thoroughly checked out as
a
creditable
observer, since this
proposed method assessing observers rests heavily
on thephysician's awn ability
to
make accurate observations and sound judgements.
It is
probably true that,
at
this point
in time, there are few men in
medicine
who are
adequately trained
to do this matispecialty
kind
of assess-
ment. This is
a
remediable situation, however, once the projected need
forsuch professional preparation has been recognized and established.

Cases discussed

About this file

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.