Scientific Testimony
We have quotes from 48 Scientists and Science organizations about UFOs
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics UFO Subcommittee
The AIAA established a subcommittee in 1967 to look into the UFO question. The UFO Subcommittee issued several reports and statements, including in-depth studies of two UFO incidents. The UFO Subcommittee stated that its “most important conclusion” was that government agencies consider funding UFO research:
“From a scientific and engineering standpoint, it is unacceptable to simply ignore substantial numbers of unexplained observations… the only promising approach is a continuing moderate-level effort with emphasis on improved data collection by objective means… involving available remote sensing capabilities and certain software changes.”
The Encyclopedia of UFOs, Ronald D.Story, New York: Doubleday, 1980. The Subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics criticized the conclusion of The Condon Report as the personal views of Dr. Condon, and added:
“The opposite conclusion could have been drawn from The Condon Report’s content, namely, that a phenomenon with such a high ratio of unexplained cases (about 30 percent) should arouse sufficient scientific curiosity to continue its study.”
Dr. Robert M. L. Baker, Jr.
“The system is partially classified and, hence, I cannot go into great detail… Since this particular sensor system has been in operation, there have been a number of anomalistic alarms. Alarms that, as of this date, have not been explained on the basis of natural phenomena interference, equipment malfunction or inadequacy, or man-made space objects.”
In 1968, he made this statement concerning the one U.S. radar system in operation at that time that, to his knowledge, exhibited sufficient continuous coverage to reveal UFOs operating above the earth’s atmosphere during 1968 Congressional Hearings. He has specialized in the study of motion pictures of UFOs and anomalistic radar images, and has concluded that two of the most famous UFO motion pictures, taken in the 1950s, cannot be explained in terms of conventional phenomena. Dr. Robert Baker was President of West Coast University; author of two astrodynamics textbooks; head of Lockheed’s Astrodynamics Research Center (1961-64) and member of the faculty of Astronomy and Engineering at UCLA (1959-71).
Merccelin Berthelot
“From now on the universe is without further mystery”
1887
Dr. Maurice Biot
“The least improbable explanation is that these things UFO’s are artificial and controlled. My opinion for some time has been that they have an extraterrestrial origin.”
Biot was one of the world’s leading aerodynamicists and mathematical physicists. Life, April 7, 1952.
Louis Breguet
“The discs use a means of propulsion different from ours. There is no other possible explanation. Flying saucers come from another world.”
Breguet was a French aircraft designer and manufacturer.
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
One of the branches of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is the China UFO Research Organization (CURO). As of 1985, CURO had 20,000 members, and two publications, the Journal of UFO Research and Space Exploration. The Journal’s first issue in 1981 included an article by Comrade Bang Wen-Gwang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Beijing Astronomical Research Society. The article stated in part: “In this field [Ufology], prejudice will take you farther from the truth than ignorance… But with a topic such as UFOs, where does the scientific method begin? And where does it end? This grand endeavor would consist of the serious recording of the enormous available data and the use of all scientific procedures for the purpose of analysis… China is so vast, and UFOs are certainly being witnessed again and again all throughout China, and China most definitely will evolve her own indigenous school of UFO researchers. This is our sincerest and deepest hope.”
Wen-Gwang, B., “The Aspirations & Hopes of the Chinese UFO Investigator,” The Journal of UFO Research, No. 1, People’s Republic of China, 1981.
China Daily
UFO Scientific Conference in Darlian. In 1985, the government newspaper, China Daily, reported that a UFO Scientific Conference was held in Darlian, with some forty papers presented on various aspects of UFO research. Professor Liang Renglin of Guangzhou Jinan University, Chairman of CURO, stated in the Darlian Conference that more than 600 UFO reports had been made in China during the past five years. The article concluded: “UFOs are an unresolved mystery with profound influence in the world.”
“UFO Conference Held in Darlian,” China Daily, August 27, 1985; quoted in Good, T., ibid.)
Camille Flammarion, The systematic denial of unexplained facts has never advanced science by one single step -, French Astronomer
Dr. Paul Czysz
“When I was at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, we had flying saucers that covered the distance from Columbus to Detroit in the equivalent of about 20,000 miles per hour … Zero-point energy represents about 40-50 megawatts of power per cubic inch of space. That’s a lot of power. If you could tap it at will, then no one would have to sell gasoline or oil anymore … Depending on the secrecy level, you have to go through a significant background check. When you do that, if you’re in a very tight compartment, you sign a statement that you will not divulge the existence of the project or even answer a question that could acknowledge the existence of the project. I know people today that worked on one of the things I worked on, and if you asked them about it, they would say, “No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” They’re in their seventies now, but they still absolutely would never admit that they even know what you’re talking about. If there were non-earthbound sources of information, the people who were doing the design or analysis work would never have any idea of where it came from.”
Dr. Paul Czysz, McDonnell-Douglas, Professor of Aeronautical Engineering
Richard Feynman
“I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence.”
Richard Feynman an influential American physicist and a key player the development of the atomic bomb,
Stanton T. Friedman
“1. To what conclusions have you come with regard to UFOs? I have concluded that the earth is being visited by intelligently 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 by competent witnesses of definite objects whose characteristics such as maneuverability, high speed, and hovering, along with definite shape, texture, and surface features, rule out terrestrial explanations.
“6. Were there any differences between the unknowns and the knowns? A ‘chi square’ statistical analysis was performed comparing the unknowns in this study to all the knowns. It was shown that the probability that the unknowns came from the same population of sighting reports as the knowns, was less than 1%. This was based on apparent color, velocity, etc… Maneuverability, one of the most distinguished characteristics of UFOs, was not included in this statistical analysis.”
Stanton T. Friedman was a nuclear physicist and well known UFO researcher responsible for the original investigation of the Roswell, New Mexico incident. From a prepared statement submitted to the House Science and Astronautics Committee UFO Hearings in 1968, he posed and answered a series of key questions about the UFO phenomenon.
Dr. Pierre Guérin
“At the very least, it is already possible to show scientifically the evidence for physico-chemical modifications affecting sometimes the ground of alleged landing sites, as well as the effects produced on the vegetation. Such research has already begun and doesn’t necessarily require large sums.”
“The UFO problem in its totality, nevertheless, cannot be really understood unless our science someday is able to propose physical models that take into account the observed phenomena. We are not able to know if this will ever occur, and in any event, we are still very far from that stage.”
Dr. Pierre Guérin, senior researcher at the French National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS), has written extensively about the need for scientific research in the UFO field. He was concluding a summary of the UFO evidence published in Sciences & Avenir in 1972. Guérin, P., “Le Dossier des Objets Volants Non Identifiés,” Sciences & Avenir, No. 307, Paris, September 1972.
Dr. Richard F. Haines
“What I found [in doing research for the book Project Delta] was compelling evidence to claim that most of these aerial objects far exceeded the terrestrial technology of the era in which they were seen. I was forced to conclude that there is a great likelihood that Earth is being visited by highly advanced aerospace vehicles under highly ‘intelligent’ control indeed.”
“We’re not dealing with mental projections or hallucinations on the part of the witness but with a real physical phenomenon.”
“Reports of anomalous aerial objects (AAO) appearing in the atmosphere continue to be made by pilots of almost every airline and air force of the world in addition to private and experimental test pilots. This paper presents a review of 56 reports of AAO in which electromagnetic effects (E-M) take place on-board the aircraft when the phenomenon is located nearby but not before it appeared or after it had departed.
“Reported E-M effects included radio interference or total failure, radar contact with and without simultaneous visual contact, magnetic and/or gyro-compass deviations, automatic direction finder failure or interference, engine stopping or interruption, dimming cabin lights, transponder failure, and military aircraft weapon system failure.”
Observing UFO’s, Haines, Dr. Richard, Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1980. Haines, a retired NASA senior research scientist at Ames Research Center and the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science where he worked on the International Space Station, from the preface of his book, CE-5, 1998. Dr. Haines was also a psychologist specializing in pilot and astronaut “human factors” research for the Ames NASA Research Center in California, from where he retired in 1988 as Chief of the Space Human Factors Office.
Dr. Frank Halstead
“Many professional astronomers are convinced that saucers are interplanetary machines.”
Halstead was with the Darling Observatory, Minnesota in 1957.
Stephen Hawking
“Of course it is possible that UFO’s really do contain aliens as many people believe, and the government is hushing it up”
Comment by Hawking on C Span Television. Stephen Hawking was the guest lecturer at the second Millennium Evening at the White House on March 6, 1998.
Dr. J. Allen Hynek
“When I first got involved in this field, I was particularly skeptical of people who said they had seen UFOs on several occasions and totally incredulous about those who claimed to have been taken aboard one. But I’ve had to change my mind.”
“It reminds me of tthe days of Galileo when he was trying to get people to look at the sun spots. They would say that the sun is a symbol of God; God is perfect; therefore the sun is perfect; therefore spots cannot exist: therefore there is no point in looking.”
Hynek in Newsweek, Nov. 21, 1977.
“I was there at [Project] Bluebook and I know the job they had. They were told not to excite the public, not to rock the boat… Whenever a case happened that they coud explain–which was quite a few–they made a point of that, and let that out to the media. . .Cases that were very difficult to explain, they would jump handsprings to keep the media away from them. They had a job to do, rightfully or wrongfully, to keep the public from getting excited.”
“When one gets reports from scientists, engineers and technicians whose credibility by all common standards is high and whose moral caliber seems to preclude a hoax, one can do no less than hear them out, in all seriousness.”
From, “The UFO Gap”, Hynek, J. Allen, Playboy, Vol. 14, No. 12, December 1967.
“There exists a phenomenon… that is worthy of systematic rigorous study… The body of data point to an aspect or domain of the natural world not yet explored by science… When the long awaited solution to the UFO problem comes, I believe that it will prove to be not merely the next small step in the march of science but a mighty and totally unexpected quantum jump.”
From Hynek, J. Allen, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, Chicago: Regnery Co., 1972. Hynek was former Chairman of the Dept. of Astronomy at North Western University and scientific advisor to Project Bluebook from 1952-1969.
“Despite the seeming inanity of the subject, I felt that I would be derelict in my scientific responsibility to the Air Force if I did not point out that the whole UFO phenomenon might have aspects to it worthy of scientific attention.”
From Hearings on Unidentified Flying Objects, Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, Second Session, 1966.Dr. Hynek was Chairman of the Department of Astronomy at Northwestern University and scientific consultant for Air Force investigations of UFOs from 1948 until 1969 (Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book). Over his long career, he made numerous comments about the scientific implications of the UFO phenomenon.
“I have begun to feel that there is a tendency in 20th Century science to forget that there will be a 21st Century science, and indeed a 30th Century science, from which vantage points our knowledge of the universe may appear quite different than it does to us. We suffer, perhaps, from temporal provincialism, a form of arrogance that has always irritated posterity.”
Hynek, J. Allen, letter to Science magazine, August 1, 1966.
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung
“A purely psychological explanation is ruled out… the discs show signs of intelligent guidance, by quasi-human pilots… the authorities in possession of important information should not hesitate to enlighten the public as soon and as completely as possible.”
“Dr. Carl Jung on Unidentified Flying Objects,” Flying Saucer Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1955.
“It remains an established fact, supported by numerous observations, that UFOs have not only been seen visually but have also been picked up on the radar screen and have left traces on the photographic plate.”
“Unfortunately, however, there are good reasons why the UFOs cannot be disposed of in this simple manner. It remains an established fact, supported by numerous observations, that UFOs have not only been seen visually but have also been picked up on the radar screen and have left traces on the photographic plate. It boils down to nothing less than this: that either psychic projections throw back a radar echo, or else the appearance of real objects affords an opportunity for mythological projections.”
“A Fresh Look at Flying Saucers,” Time, August 4, 1967.
Lee Katchen
“UFO sightings are now so common, the military doesn’t have time to worry about them. . .when a UFO appears, they simply ignore it. . .Unconventional targets are ignored because apparently we are only interested in Russian targets, possibly enemy targets. Something that hovers in the air, then shoots off at 5,000 miles per hour, doesn’t interest us, because it can’t be the enemy. UFOs are picked up by ground and air radar, and they have been photographed by gun camera all along. There are so many UFOs in the sky that the Air Force has had to employ special radar networks to screen them out.”
Katchen, NASA atmospheric physicist, in an announcement on June 7, 1968 in which he stated that he believed, based on his examination of 7,000 reports, that UFOs have an extraterrestrial origin.
Robert J. Low
“The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it woud appear a totally objective study but, to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of non-believers trying their best to be objective, but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer.”
Low, project coordinator of the Colorado University UFO Project (a.k.a. The Condon Committee), in a memorandum of instruction from August 9, 1966. This telling quote gives an impression as to what may have been the goal of the Project: to either get the thing out of the way without hurting any of the scientists’ credibility, or to comply with a rumored Air Force directive to produce a report showing UFOs to be unworthy of scientific consideration.
Dr. John E. Mack
“I will stress once again that we do not know the source from which the UFOs or the alien beings come (whether or not, for example, they originate in the physical universe as modern astrophysics has described it). But they manifest in the physical world and bring about definable consequences in that domain.”
Abduction – Human Encounters With Aliens, Mack, J., New York: Scribners, 1994. Dr. John E. Mack, Professor of psychiatry at The Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and founding director of the Center for Psychology and Social Change. A 1977 Pulitzer Prize winner for his biography of Lawrence of Arabia.
Dr. J. C. MacKenzie
“It seemed fantastic that there could be any such thing. At first, the temptation was to say it was all nonsense, a series of optical illusions. But there have been so many reports from responsible observers that they cannot be ignored. It seems hardly possible that all these reports could be due to optical illusions.”
MacKenzie was Chairman of the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board and former president of the National Research Council.
Dr. Eugene Mallove
“I was the Chief Science Writer at the MIT news office when the cold fusion story out of Utah broke on March 23, 1989. It turns out the cold fusion effect was real. In fact, what Pons and Fleischmann found was only the tip of an iceberg. There are huge quantities of technical literature published by proponents, and a much smaller amount by the people who found so-called negative results….One day while at MIT, I inadvertently was looking through some piles of paper by physicists doing their repeat of the Pons-Fleischmann experiment. To my utter astonishment, I can remember sitting at my desk and actually seeing two sheets of paper, one dated July 10 and another July 13. The July 10 control experiment showed in the raw data excess heat. But then, on July 13, it was shifted completely. It was altered. Clear fraud—no question. I asked for a review at MIT. I got nowhere. Yet today, MIT data is held up. There has been an extraordinary abrogation of legal responsibility at the Patent Office and the Department of Energy on the matter of cold fusion. There is serious criminal activity going on that ultimately must be rooted out if the cold fusion and new energy revolution are to go forward.”
Dr. Eugene Mallove, MIT Chief Science Writer. See Dr. Mallove’s website www.infinite-energy.com
Clark McClelland
“As the Gemini Capsule entered orbit, the RCA world tracking team began to realize that ‘our’ capsule was not alone as viewed through their incoming telemetry, visual theodolite and other high powered optical data. Our capsule had four ‘visitors’. The RCA team was ordered to run a recheck of the situation to be certain ghost images were not the cause. The Titan II stages were also excluded as causing the images. . . .After much huddling and discussion the intelligent determination was that we had other physical objects up there with our Gemini capsule. . . .The official NASA determination was that the objects were the torn particles or remains of the Titan upper stage that apparently entered orbit with the Gemini capsule. I was at the news conference and I nearly began to laugh. How could a broken stage overtake the capsule and stop slightly ahead of the capsule to accompany it an entire orbit around the earth? But I held my laugh to save my job.”
Commenting on the April 9, 1964 unmanned launch of the Gemini-Titan 2.
“The day will arrive when the governments of earth will finally admit we are not alone, that humans have come face to face with other lifeforms from the cosmos.”
These quotes come from Clark’s website, The Stargate Chronicles. McClelland was an Aerospace Engineer and Technical Assistant to the Apollo Program Manager during the Apollo moon landings, also assisted in almost six hundred launches at Cape Canaveral, and in addition to working in the Mercury and Gemini programs, Space Lab and the Space Station, was heavily involved in the Space Shuttle program.
Dr. James E. McDonald
“The type of UFO reports that are most intriguing are close-range sightings of machine-like objects of unconventional nature and unconventional performance characteristics, seen at low altitudes, and sometimes even on the ground. The general public is entirely unaware of the large number of such reports that are coming from credible witnesses… When one starts searching for such cases, their number are quite astonishing. Also, such sightings appear to be occurring all over the globe.”
“Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects,” Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, July 29, 1968.
“I have absolutely no idea where the UFO’s come from or how they are operated, but after ten years of research, I know they are something from outside our atmosphere.”
Dr. McDonald was Senior Physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Margaret Mead
“There are unidentified flying objects. That is, there are a hard core of cases – perhaps 20 to 30 percent in different studies – for which there is no explanation… We can only imagine what purpose lies behind the activities of these quiet, harmlessly cruising objects that time and again approach the earth. The most likely explanation, it seems to me, is that they are simply watching what we are up to.”
“There are unidentified flying objects. That is, there are a hard core of cases – perhaps 20 to 30 percent in different studies – for which there is no explanation… We can only imagine what purpose lies behind the activities of these quiet, harmlessly cruising objects that time and again approach the earth. The most likely explanation, it seems to me, is that they are simply watching what we are up to.”
“UFOs – Visitors from Outer Space?”, Mead, Margaret, Redbook, vol. 143, September 1974. Dr. Mead is a world-renowned anthropologist
Dr. Harry Messel
“The facts about saucers were long tracked down and results have long been known in top secret defense circles of more countries than one.”
Dr. Harry Messel, Professor of Physics at Sydney University, Australia, in a 1965 statement.
Dr. Auguste Meessen
“There are too many independent eyewitness reports to ignore. Too many of the reports describe coherent physical effects, and there is an agreement among the accounts concerning what was observed… But of course there are also physical effects. The Air Force report [of the F-16 jet scramble incident on the night of March 30-31, 1990] allows us to approach the problem in a rational and scientific way. The simplest hypothesis is that the reports are caused by extraterrestrial visitors, but that hypothesis carries with it other problems. We are not in a rush to form a conclusion, but continue to study the mystery.”
From an interview with French journalist, Marie-Therese de Brosses. Dr. Auguste Meessen was Professor of physics at the Catholic University in Louvain and one of the scientific consultants for the Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena (SOBEPS)
C. B. Moore
“Based on the descriptions, I can definitely rule this out. There wasn’t a balloon in 1947 or today that could account for this incident.”
Moore, General Mills Meteorologist and expert on weather balloons, when asked whether he believed the Roswell Incident could be explained by a Mogul balloon.
Dr. Herman Oberth
“UFOs are conceived and directed by intelligent beings of a very high order, and they are propelled by distorting the gravitational field, converting gravity into useable energy. There is no doubt in my mind that these objects are interplanetary craft of some sort. I and my colleagues are confident that they do not originate in our solar system, but we feel that they may use Mars or some other body as sort of a way station. They probably do not originate in our solar system, perhaps not even in our galaxy.”
1954 American Weekly of Oct. 24, 1954.
“It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system.”
“We cannot take the credit for our record advancement in certain scientific fields alone. We have been helped. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries. I think that they possibly have been sent out to conduct systematic, long-range investigations, first of men, animals, vegetation, and more recently of atomic centers, armaments and centers of armament production.”
“Flying Saucers Come From A Distant World”, Oberth H., The American Weekly, October 24, 1954.
“They are flying by means of artificial fields of gravity… They produce high-tension electric charges in order to push the air out of their paths, so it does not start glowing, and strong magnetic fields to influence the ionized air at higher altitudes. First, this would explain their luminosity… Secondly, it would explain the noiselessness of UFO flight… Finally, this assumption also explains the strong electrical and magnetic effects sometimes, though not always, observed in the vicinity of UFOs.”
“Dr. Hermann Oberth discusses UFOs,” Fate, May 1962.
“It is my conclusion that UFOs do exist, are very real, and are spaceships from another or more than one solar system. They are possibly manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race carrying out long-range scientific investigations of our earth for centuries.”
UFO News, 1974
Dr. Claude Poher
“Taking into account the facts that we have gathered from the observers and from the location of their observations, we concluded that there generally can be said to be a material phenomenon behind the observations. In 60% of the cases reported here, the description of this phenomenon is apparently one of a flying machine whose origin, modes of lifting and/or propulsion are totally outside our knowledge. ”
From a report on UFOs for French officials.
“The phenomenon seems to be real… The general coherence of sighting reports worldwide should not leave researchers indifferent. One does not conceive objective arguments to justify an attitude that would avoid at all cost these observations… The risk is, at worst, to confirm the existence of unknown vehicles appearing erratically into our atmosphere – a hypothesis that seems to explain nearly all reported aspects of the phenomenon and could be linked to the current (1970) exobiology branch of space research.”
“Given the volume of the objects described in the observations… I can affirm that our futuristic space generators are far from being able to produce the amount of energy seen by the UFO witnesses. The light power seen is probably the tip of the iceberg, because no thermodynamic system can produce energy without dissipating a part of it. The megawatts of observed light are most likely the energy ‘leak’ from the energy conversion system used by the flying object, which means that the useful energy produced is much greater than what is seen.”
1971 Statistical Study prepared for the CNES and French officials.
“The knowledge of such an energy production method is crucial for the future of mankind. The UFO observation reports tells us that ambitious, entirely new, solutions are possible [underlined in the original]. This is very important.”
From a letter to Marie Galbraith, November 26, 1995. Dr. Poher earned a Ph.D. in astronomy, was an expert in aeronautics, and astronautics, an engineer at the French Space Agency (CNES) for thirty years, specializing in rocket propulsion and nuclear space energy; former Chairman of many working groups in the International Astronautical Federation; founder of GEPAN in May 1977 and its first Director until 1979. Before creating GEPAN, he had studied the UFO phenomenon for many years and had access to French military and police UFO files, including classified reports.
Dr. Walther Riedel
“I am completely convinced that [UFOs] have an out-of-world basis.”
“First, the skin temperatures of structures operating under the observed conditions would make it impossible for any terrestrial structure to survive. The skin friction of the missile at those speeds at those altitudes would melt any metals or nonmetals available.
Second, consider the high acceleration at which they fly and maneuver… In some descriptions the beast spirals straight up. If you think of the fact that the centrifugal force in a few minutes of such a maneuver would press the crew against the outside, and do likewise to the blood, you see what I mean. Third…. There are many occurrences where they have done things that only a pilot could perform but that no human pilot could stand. Fourth, in most of the reports there is a lack of visible jet. Most observers report units without visible flame . . . and no trail. If it would be any known type of jet, rocket, piston engine, or chain-reaction motor, there would be a very clear trail at high altitude. It is from no power unit we know of . . .”
“The least improbable explanation is that these things are artificial and controlled … My opinion for some time has been that they have an extraterrestrial origin.”
From LIFE Magazine, April 7, 1952. Riedel was research director and chief designer at Germany’s rocket center in Peenemunde and also worked on classified projects for the U.S. after WW2.
Dr. Carol Rosin
“Von Braun [founder of modern rocket science] told me [in 1974] that the reasons for space-based weaponry were all based on a lie. He said that the strategy was to use scare tactics – that first the Russians, then the terrorists are going to be considered the enemy. The next enemy was asteroids. “The last card is the alien card. We are going to have to build space-based weapons against aliens, and all of it is a lie.”…I was at a meeting in Fairchild Industries in the War Room. The conversation [was] about how they were going to antagonize these enemies and at some point, there was going to be a Gulf War. Now this is 1977!”
From a UFO Disclosure Project video. Dr. Carol Rosin was Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries and spokesperson for Wernher von Braun.
Dr. Carl Sagan
“It now seems quite clear that Earth is not the only inhabited planet. There is evidence that the bulk of the stars in the sky have planetary systems. Recent research concerning the origin of life on Earth suggests that the physical and chemical processes leading to the origin of life occur rapidly in the early history of the majority of planets. The selective value of intelligence and technical civilization is obvious, and it seems likely that a large number of planets within our Milky Way galaxy – perhaps as many as a million – are inhabited by technical civilizations in advance of our own. Interstellar space flight is far beyond our present technical capabilities, but there seems to be no fundamental physical objections to preclude, from our own vantage point, the possibility of its development by other civilizations.”
“Unidentified Flying Objects”, Sagan, Carl, The Encyclopedia Americana, 1963. Dr. Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell University:
“After I give lectures – on almost any subject – I am often asked, “Do you believe in UFOs?”. I’m always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not evidence. I’m almost never asked, “How good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?”.
Carl Sagan, ‘The Demon Haunted World,’ 1996
Dr. Frank B. Salisbury
“I must admit that any favorable mention of the flying saucers by a scientist amounts to extreme heresy and places the one making the statement in danger of excommunication by the scientific theocracy. Nevertheless, in recent years I have investigated the story of the unidentified flying object (UFO), and I am no longer able to dismiss the idea lightly.”
Paper on “Exobiology” presented at the First Annual Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium, held at the United States Air Force Academy, in May 1964. Quoted in Fuller, John G., Incident at Exeter, Putnam, 1966. Dr. Salisbury was Professor of Plant Physiology at Utah State University.
Dr. Paul Santorini
“We soon established that they were not missiles. But, before we could do any more, the Army, after conferring with foreign officials, ordered the investigation stopped. Foreign scientists flew to Greece for secret talks with me… A world blanket of secrecy surrounded the UFO question because the authorities were unwilling to admit the existence of a force against which we had no possibility of defense.”
“UFOs: Interplanetary Visitors”, Fowler, R., New York: Bantam Books, 1974. Dr. Santorini was a Greek physicist and engineer credited with developing the proximity fuse for the Hiroshima atomic bomb, two patents for the guidance system used in the U.S. Nike missiles, and a centimetric radar system. He has also stated that he believes UFOs are under intelligent control. In 1947, he investigated a series of UFO reports over Greece that were initially thought to be Soviet missiles.
Dr. John Sathco
“There are in excess of 200 reports of the type that we had from down in Louisiana, from people claiming that they have had direct contact with a spacecraft full of aliens. I mean 200 reports from witnesses who are as reliable or more so than these people. I’m not counting the reports from the obvious crackpots that have an axe to grind….If you accept them at face value then you’re forced to accept that we have been visited.
Sathco was an Astronomer at the University of Southern California in 1973.
Wilbert Smith
“The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb. Flying saucers exist. Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush.”
From a declssified Canadian government memorandum dated Nov. 21, 1950.
“…it soon became apparent that there was a very real and quite large gap between this alien science and the science in which I had been trained. Certain crucial experiments were suggested and carried out, and in each case the results confirmed the validity of the alien science. Beyond this point the alien science just seemed to be incomprehensible.”
In a speech concerning experiments allegedly suggested by EBEs (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities); March 31, 1958.
“If, as appears evident, the Flying Saucers are emissaries from some other civilisation, and actually do operate on magnetic principles, we have before us the Fact that we have missed something in magnetic theory but have a good indication of the direction in which to look for the missing quantities. It is therefore strongly recommended that work on Project Magnet be continued and expanded to include experts in each of the various fields involved in these studies”
From an interim report dated 25th June 1952 Wilbert Smith was the electrical engineer who convinced the Canadian government to establish Project Magnet to study the UFO phenomenon and later served as engineer-in-charge of the project.
Dr. Leo Sprinkle
“We watched it for quite a few minutes. We could see it was larger than the headlights of the cars below. And we could see it was not attached to anything. And there was no sound. I became frightened actually, because it wasn’t anything I could understand… from a personal viewpoint, I am pretty well convinced that we are being surveyed.”
“Flying Saucers,” Special Issue of Look magazine, 1967. Dr. Sprinkle, Professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming had his first UFO sighting in 1951 when he and a friend saw “something in the sky, round and metallic looking.” In 1956, he had a second sighting while driving with his wife near Boulder, Colorado.
Dr. Peter A. Sturrock
“The definitive resolution of the UFO enigma will not come about unless and until the problem is subjected to open and extensive scientific study by the normal procedures of established science. This requires a change in attitude primarily on the part of scientists and administrators in universities.”
Sturrock, Peter A., Report on a Survey of the American Astronomical Society concerning the UFO Phenomenon, Stanford University Report SUIPR 68IR, 1977.
“Although… the scientific community has tended to minimize the significance of the UFO phenomenon, certain individual scientists have argued that the phenomenon is both real and significant. Such views have been presented in the Hearings of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics [and elsewhere]. It is also notable that one major national scientific society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, set up a subcommittee in 1967 to ‘gain a fresh and objective perspective on the UFO phenomenon.’ In their public statements (but not necessarily in their private statements), scientists express a generally negative attitude towards the UFO problem, and it is interesting to try to understand this attitude. Most scientists have never had the occasion to confront evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon. To a scientist, the main source of hard information (other than his own experiments’ observations) is provided by the scientific journals. With rare exceptions, scientific journals do not publish reports of UFO observations. The decision not to publish is made by the editor acting on the advice of reviewers. This process is self-reinforcing: the apparent lack of data confirms the view that there is nothing to the UFO phenomenon, and this view works against the presentation of relevant data.”
“An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project”, Sturrock, Peter A., Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1987. Dr. Sturrock was Professor of Space Science and Astrophysics Deputy Director of the Center for Space Sciences and Astrophysics at Stanford University, and Director of the Skylab Workshop on Solar Flares in 1977.
Clyde Tombaugh
“The illuminated rectangles I saw did maintain an exact fixed position with respect to each other, which would tend to support the impression of solidity. I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection. . . .I do a great deal of observing (both telescopic and unaided eye) in the backyard and nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since.”
Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, in a letter dated September 10, 1957. The phenomenon was also witnessed by his wife.
U.S.S.R.
Institute of Space Research of the Soviet Academy of Sciences published in 1979, a 74-page statistical analysis of over 250 UFO cases reported in the Soviet Union. After stating that hallucinations, errors, and conventional explanations (aircraft, satellites, etc.) could not account for many of the reports, the study concluded:
“Obviously, the question of the nature of the anomalous phenomena still should be considered open. To obtain more definite conclusions, more reliable data must be available. Reports on observations of anomalous phenomena have to be well documented. The production of such reports must be organized through the existing network of meteorological, geophysical, and astronomical observation stations, as well as through other official channels… In our opinion, the Soviet and foreign data accumulated so far justifies setting such studies.”
Gindilis, L.M., Men’kov, D.A. & Petrovskaya, I.G., “Observations of Anomalous Atmospheric Phenomena in the USSR: Statistical Analysis,” USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Space Research, Report PR 473, Moscow, 1979.
U.S.S.R. Scientific Commissions
“Of special value are the archives set up by the Commission. They contain over 13 thousand reports connected with PEs [Paranormal Events] and with UFOs in particular… UFOs have been seen to hover over ground objects, to chase or fly side by side with airplanes and cars, to follow geometrically regular trajectories, and to send out ordered flashes of light. In other words, such ‘paranormals’ behave, from the viewpoint of human beings, quite often showing capabilities yet beyond the reach of the machines built on the Earth.”
Faminskaya, T. & Petukhov, A., “At 4.10 Hours and After,” Almanac Phenomenon 1989, Moscow Mir, 1989. The Soviet press was informed in the mid-80s that the All-Union Council of Scientific and Technical Societies (now the Council of Scientific and Engineering Societies) had set up a non-governmental Commission on Paranormal Events, headed by V.S. Troitsky, a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Jacques Vallee
“Skeptics, who flatly deny the existence of any unexplained phenomenon in the name of ‘rationalism,’ are among the primary contributors to the rejection of science by the public. People are not stupid and they know very well when they have seen something out of the ordinary. When a so-called expert tells them the object must have been the moon or a mirage, he is really teaching the public that science is impotent or unwilling to pursue the study of the unknown.”
Vallee, J., Confrontations, New York: Ballantine Books, 1990.
“It is unusual for scientists to keep diaries and even more unusual for them to make them public… I have followed this rule of silence for the last thirty years, but I have finally decided that I had no right to keep them private anymore… They provide a primary source about a crucial fact in the recent historical record: the appearance of new classes of phenomena that highlighted the reality of the paranormal. These phenomena were deliberately denied or distorted by those in authority within the government and the military. Science never had fair and complete access to the most important files. The thirteen years covered here, from 1957 to 1969, saw some of the most exciting events in technological history… Behind the grand parade of the visible breakthroughs in science, however, more private mysteries were also taking place:… all over the world people had begun to observe what they described as controlled devices in the sky. They were shaped like saucers or spheres. They seemed to violate every known principle in our physics.”
“Governments took notice, organizing task forces, encouraging secret briefings and study groups, funding classified research and all the time denying before the public that any of the phenomena might be real… The major revelation of these Diaries may be the demonstration of how the scientific community was misled by the government, how the best data were kept hidden, and how the public record was shamelessly manipulated.”
Vallee, J., Forbidden Science, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1992. Dr. Jacques Vallee, astrophysicist, computer scientist and world renowned researcher and author on UFOs and paranormal phenomena. He worked closely with Dr. J. Allen Hynek.
Werner Von Braun
“We find ourselves faced by powers which are far stronger than we had hitherto assumed, and whose base is at present unknown to us. More I cannot say at present. We are now engaged in entering into closer contact with those powers, and in six or nine months time it may be possible to speak with some precision on the matter.”
This comment comes from “News Europa” Jan. 1959 and refers to mysterious events during the re-entry phase of the Juno 2 rocket during a test flight.
“…it is as impossible to confirm them (UFOs) in the present as it will be to deny them in the future.”
n a comment to Nasa scientist, Clark McClelland. Von Braun was rocket scientist who was instrumental in the development of Nazi Germany’s V2 rocket and later, the American space program.
Dr. Alfred Webre
“I worked on the 1977 Carter White House Extraterrestrial Communication Project. It called for creation of central and regional databases under independent control on UFOs and EBEs—that is Extraterrestrial Biological Entities. The full management staff and the research institute had signed off knowingly on the proposal …I flew back from my meeting with the White House, at which this final approval had been given. And when I arrived back at my offices at SRI (Stanford Research Institue), I was called back into the office of the senior SRI official. The project was to be terminated. They had received direct communication from the Pentagon that if the study went forward, SRI’s contracts would be terminated. These contracts were a substantial part of SRI’s business at the time. The senior Pentagon liaison stated that the project was terminated because, “There are no UFOs.” Here we have a President of the United States who came to office under a pledge to open up the UFO issue, and an open study in the White House, and that was squelched.”
Dr. Alfred Webre, Stanford Research Institute, Senior Policy Analyst
Dr. Weisberg
“Like a turtle’s back, with a cabin space some fifteen feet in diameter. The bodies of six occupants were seared and the interior of the disc had been badly damaged by intense heat.”
Dr. Weisber, from a memo by the director of the Borderland Science Research Foundation, Layne Meade, in 1949 concerning a description given by Dr. Weisberg, a Canadian physics professor who apparently examined some retrieved discs for the U. S. Air Force at Edwards AFB.
Zhang Zhousheng
“What was especially important was that, at a distance of 180 kilometers apart, the records about the direction of movement of the strange aerial body in space, made independently by at least two different observers was basically the same. . . .To the present time this strange phenomenon has not been satisfactorily explained, yet there were thousands of good observers who had seen it.”
Zhang Zhousheng an astronomer at the Yunnan Observatory in Chengdu City, China. Zhousheng and others nearby watched a strange glowing, spiral object moving steadily across the sky for about five minutes on the evening of July 26, 1977.
Dr. Felix Y. Zigel
“Unidentified flying objects are a very serious subject which we must study fully. We appeal to all viewers to send us details of strange flying craft seen over the territories of the Soviet Union. This is a serious challenge to science and we need the help of all Soviet citizens.”
“Observations show that UFOs behave ‘sensibly.’ In a group formation flight, they maintain a pattern. They are most often spotted over airfields, atomic stations and other very new engineering installations. On encountering aircraft, they always maneuver so as to avoid direct contact. A considerable list of these seemingly intelligent actions gives the impression that UFOs are investigating, perhaps even reconnoitering… The important thing now is for us to discard any preconceived notions about UFOs and to organize on a global scale a calm, sensation-free and strictly scientific study of this strange phenomenon. The subject and aims of the investigation are so serious that they justify all efforts. It goes without saying that international cooperation is vital.”
“Unidentified Flying Objects”, Zigel, F., Soviet Life, No. 2 (137), February 1968.
“We have seen these UFOs over the USSR; craft of every possible shape: small, big, flattened, spherical. They are able to remain stationary in the atmosphere or to shoot along at 100,000 kilometers per hour… They are also able to affect our power resources, halting our electricity generating plants, our radio stations, and our engines, without however leaving any permanent damage. So refined a technology can only be the fruit of an intelligence that is indeed far superior to man.”
From an interview with Henri Gris in 1981, Gente, July 31, 1981 and August 7, 1981. Dr. Zigel was Professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Moscow Aviation Institute, known as the father of Russian Ufology. In a November 10, 1967 broadcast on Moscow Central Television, with Soviet Air Force General Porfiri Stolyarov