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.

  • 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…
214
Professional
affiliations
include
the
American
Physical
Society,
the
American
Nuclear
Society,
the
American
Institute
of Aeronautics
and
Astronautics,
the
Aerial
Phenomenon
Research
Organization,
the
National
Investigations
Commit-
tee
on
Aerial
Phenomena. Mr.
Friedman
is
on
the
Board
of
Directors
of
the
UFO
Research
Institute
of
Pittsburgh
and
on
the
Standards
and Program
Committees
of
the
Shielding Division
of
the
American
Nuclear
Society.
Mr.
Friedman has
presented
papers
at
technical
society
meetings
and
has
chaired
sessions
at such
meetings.
He
has
written
numerous
classified
and
un-
classified
reports
and
has
published
articles
on
UFOs
as
well
as on
radiation
shielding.
Mr.
Friedman
has
made
dozens
of
radio
and
TV
appearances
across
the
United
States
and
in
Canada. These
include
the
Joe
Pyne
Show
(Los
Angeles—radio),
Long
John
Nebel
(New
York
City),
the
J.
P.
McCarthy
Show
in
Detroit,
all
four
TV
stations
in Pittsburgh,
and
others
in Raleigh,
Akron,
Detroit,
Baltimore,
Toronto,
Waco,
Phoenix,
Calgary,
Albuquerque,
etc.
Mr.
Friedman,
his
wife,
and
three
children
reside
at
702
Summerlea
Street in
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.
PREPARED STATEMENT
BY
STANTON
T.
FRIEDMAN
UFOs
AND
SCIENCE
I
am
grateful
to the
House
Committee on
Science
and
Astronautics
for
inviting
me
to present
my
views
on
Unidentified
Flying
Objects.'
These
viewpoints
shall
be
presented in
the
form
of
answers
to
specific
questions
with the
references, tables
and
figures
presented
at the
end
of the
article.
A
partial
list
of the
technical
organizations
to
which
I
have
presented
a
lecture.
entitled
"Flying Saucers are
Real"
is
given
in
Appendix
1.
Appendix
3
is
a
reprint
of
an
article
I
wrote.'
Ap-
pendix
2
is
a
list
of
patents
of saucer
-like
vehicles.
The
viewpoints
are
mine
and
mine
alone
and
are not to
be
construed
as
those
of
any
of
the
organizations to
which
I
belong
or
of
my
employer,
Westinghouse
Astronuclear Laboratory.
The
opinions
are based
upon
ten
years
of study of
UFOs
and
discussions
all
over the
U.S.
and
in
Canada
on
a
private
level
for
eight
years
and a
public
level
since
late
1966
both
in question
and answer
sessions
following
my
illustrated
talks
and
with newspaper,
radio,
and
television
reporters
with
whom
I
have
publicly
discussed this subject.1.
To
what
conclusions
have you
come
with
regard to
UFOs?
I
have
concluded that the earth
is
being
visited
by
intelligg
,
ntly controlled
vehicles
whose
origin is extraterrestrial.
This
doesn't
mean
I
know
where
they
come
from,
why
they
are
here,
or
how
they
operate.
2.
What
basis
do
you
have
for these conclusions?
Eyewitness
and
photographic
and
radar
reports
from
all
over the
earth
bycompetent
witnesses
of
definite
objects
whose
characteristics
such as
maneu-
verability,
high speed,
and
hovering,
along with
definite
shape,
texture,
and
sur-
face
features
rule
out
terrestrial
explanations
;
3.
Haven't
most
sightings
been
identified
as
conventional
phenomena?
Yes, of
course.
However,
it
is
only
the
unidentified
objects in
which
I
am
in-
terested
and
on
which
I
base
my
conclusions.
The
job
of
science is
to
sort
data
and
focus
on
that
which
is
relevant
to the search
at hand.
Fewer
than
1%
of
Americans have
hemophilia or are
7
feet
tall
or can run
a
mile
in
under
4
min-
utes—we
certainly don't dispute
the
reality
of
hemophilia,
Wilt Chamberlain, or
4
minute
miles.
4.
Are
there
any
good
unknowns?
Yes, there
are very
many
good
unknowns
which have
been
reported
and
inves-
tigated
and
undoubtedly very
many
more
which have
not been reported because
of the "laughter
curtain".
In
the
most
comprehensive
detailed
scientific
investiga-
tion
ever conducted
on
this subject,
and
reported in
Reference
3,
it
was
foundthat
434
out of 2199
sightings
evaluated
had
to
be
classified
as
Unknowns.
This
is
19.7%
or
a
far higher percentage
than most
people
have
associated
with
UFOs.
The
complete
breakdown
is
shown
in
Table
1.
Table
2
shows
the
breakdown
ofsightings
by
quality.
Fully
one
third
of the
9.7%
of the
sightings labelled
as
Excellent
were
identified
as Unknowns:
one
fourth of the
Oood
sightings
were
labelled
Unknown.
All
it
would take to prove the
reality
of
extraterrestrial
vehicles is
one good
sighting
not hundreds.
Footnotes at the end of
article.

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.