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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.

  • p. 5 …Illinois, Chicago, Ill_ 100 Dr. James A. Harder, associate professor of civil engineering, University ofCalifornia 113…
  • p. 8 …Hall, head of the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr.James A.Harder…
  • p. 27 …in Redlands, Calif., which I think Dr. Harder may be able to tell still more about…
  • p. 29 …the instance at Redlands, and perhaps Dr. Harder can fill you in in more detail. On…
  • p. 58 …of Redlands. Because I understand that Dr. Harder will be giving a fairly detailed report of…
  • p. 97 …investigate these things, I think requires some harder evidence than is now at hand. It is…
  • p. 118 …Harder, will you proceed. (The biography of Dr.Harder is as follows:) DR. J. A. HARDER…
  • p. 119 …Dr.HARDER.Thank you,Mr.Chairman. Your committee has asked me to comment on the problem…
  • p. 123 …nature? Dr.HARDER.Yes, that is right. Mr. WYDLER. All right. Dr. HARDER. In my statement…
  • p. 125 …Go ahead, Dr.Harder. Dr. HARDER. The instances in which physical fragments of UFO's have…
  • p. 127 …statement? Dr. HARDER. That concludes my statement. PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES A. HARDER I am…
  • p. 196 …HYNEK. I will certainly grant that. Dr. HARDER. I would only respond to Mr. Boone by…
  • p. 197 …no question it can be done. Dr. HARDER. I would agree the amount of effort that…
  • p. 198 …BAKER. I have a question of Dr. Harder about the Ubatuba magnesium. Was this magnesium terrestrial…
  • p. 199 193Dr. HARDER. This was done by a neutralization analysis on a very tiny slicer. It would…
  • p. 201 …attendance of the entire series. Dr. Harder. Dr. HARDER. Following on something that Dr. Hynek said…
  • p. 203 …Baker, and Dr. Hall, Dr. McDonald, Dr. Harder, Dr. Hynek, and Dr. Sagan, I believe that…
197
This
data,
which
most
people
have
never
seen
or
even heard
of,
is
published in
a
document
entitled
"Project
Blue
Book
Special
Report,
Number
14"
which
was
completed
in
1955
and
has
never been
made
readily
available.
The
low
percentage
of
Unknowns
since
that
time
is
the
direct result
of
deception
on
the
part
of
the
U.S.
Air
Force
whose
entire
approach
since
that
time
has
been based
upon
the
assumption
that everything
can be
identified.
The
usual
arguments
made
against
"visitations"
are
based
upon
false
assump-
tions,
wrong
(unanswerable)
questions
and
faulty
knowledge.
"Things
cannot
go
that
fast
in
the
atmosphere—spaceflight
is
impossible—trips
to
the
stars
are
impossible,
if
they
were
here they
would
talk
to
us
.
.
.
etc."
The
typical
educated
non
-believer
focuses
on
the
irrelevant
IFO's
and
poor
sightings
by
incompetent
observers
and
carefully neglects
the
UNKNOWNS
seen
by
corn-,
petent
observers.
The
great
probability
that
there
are
civilizations
thousands,
perhaps
millions
of
years,
ahead
of
us
and
possessing
technology
about
which
we
are
probably
totally
ignorant
is
neglected.
The
distressing
thought
that
we,
the
inhabitants
of
this
planet,
might
not
be worth
talking
to
is
pushed
aside.
The
most
effective
filter
between
the
facts
as
they are
and
the widespread
distri-
bution
of
those
facts
has
been
ridicule.
Fewer
than
1%
of the
sightings
that
have
occurred
have
been
investigated
or
reported.
Documents
containing
solid
data
about
UFO's
rather
than
IFO's have
been
privately
published
so
that
most
people
have
never
seen the
data
that
they
contain.
An
entire
mythology
of
false
information
has
been widely
distributed
instead.
Now
is
the
time
to
break
through
the "laughter
curtain."
Studies
done
six
years
ago
at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory
showed
that
trips
to
the
stars
in
reasonable
times are
feasible
withthe
knowledge
we
have
today
using staged
fission
or
fusion propulsion
systems
both of
which
are
under
development.
A
tremendously
large
body
of
data
con-
nected
with
magnetoaerodynamics even
suggests
we
might
be
able
to
build
some-
thing
very
much
like
the
reported
UFO's—and
also solve
many
of
the
problems
of
high speed
flight
and
produce the
electromagnetic
effects
so
frequently
asso-
ciated
with
UFO
sightings.
"It's
impossible"
is
said instead
of
"We
don't
know
how."
Literally
hundreds
of
reports
from
all
over the
world
also
testify
to
the
existence
of
humanoid
creatures
associated
with
UFO's
on
the ground.
Once
again
ridicule
has
kept
the
facts
from
being
known. More
than
200
landings
have
been
documented
for
1954
alone.
There
are
good
pictures
of
UFO's
from
all
over the
world—most
of
which
have
also
not
received
the
publicity
that they
deserve.
A
good
example
of the
ridiculousness
of the
professional
skeptics'
attitude
is
the statement that
"life
as
we
know
it
cannot
exist
on
any
other
body
in
the
solar
system."
It
sounds
sensible until
we
note that
we
expect
to
send
men
to
the
moon
and
to
Mars.
The
primary
attribute
of
an
advanced
intelligent civilization
is
its
ability
to create
its
own
environment almost everywhere such as
the
bottomof the ocean,
in outer space,
and on
the
surface
of
airless,
waterless bodies
such
as
the
moon
and
Mars.
For
those
who
believe
that the
Mariner
IV
pictures
of
Mars
proved that there
isn't life
there,
it
should be
pointed
out
that of 10,000
Pictures
taken of the earth
from
a
satellite
with
cameras
of the
same
resolving
power as
those
used
on
Mariner
IV,
only
1
(one)
gave
any
indication
of
life
on
earth.
Max
Plank
once
said
that
new
truths
come
to
be
accepted
not because
their
opponents
come
to
believe
in
them
but because
their
opponents
die
and a
new
generation
grows up
that
is
accustomed
to
them. Perhaps
this is
what
will
happen
with
UFO's.
Mr.
Rousll.
Dr. Baker, and Dr.
Hall,
Dr. McDonald, Dr. Harder,
Dr. Hynek, and Dr. Sagan,
I
believe
that
you
people
have
made
a
real
contribution here,
and
I
think the time
will
come when
certain
people
will
look back
and
read
what has been
done
here today
and
realize
that
we
have
pioneered in
a
field
insofar as the Congress of
the United
States
is
concerned.
They
will
be very mindful
that
something worthwhile
was done
here today.
As
a
personal note,
I
would
like
to say
this
has been one of the most
unusual and most
interesting
days.I have spent since
I
have been in
the Congress of the United
States.
Thank
you.
I
thank each of you.

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.