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25 KiB
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403 lines
25 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: LET THE PROJECT BEGAIN FILE: UFO2433
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BY PAMELA WEINTRAUB for OMNI Mag.
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OMNI KICKS OFF PROJECT OPEN BOOK, A WORLDWIDE QUEST FOR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF
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THE DOCUMENTED KIND.
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It was a clear, cold night in Brooklyn, New York, when ham-radio operator Alex
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Cavallari picked up bizarre, jumping wave forms on his scope. An hour later
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and some ten miles west in Newark, New Jersey, the same disturbance puzzled
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former Navy man and ham-radio operator John Gonzalez. Gonzalez's neighbors
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were disrupted as well: TV reception was interrupted, homes shook as if in an
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earthquake, and several witnesses reported a flash of light. Gonzalez now
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claims he could make out a disc-shaped craft inside the light, and contends the
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craft brushed his ham-radio antenna and knocked down tree branches in his
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backyard. A strange, ashlike sphere the size of a golf ball was later found in
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his yard. Rich in evidence, this intriguing incident has already been
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investigated by police and fire departments and by researchers in a lab. The
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needed culmination for all this data: a synthesis, in which an explanation
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might emerge.
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Multiple witnesses and physical effects also define dramatic sightings over
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southwestern Michigan, where hundreds of people have reported red and white
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lights moving in circles through the sky. Here, the documentation includes
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police reports confirming the strange phenomena as well as data from the
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National Weather Service at the Muskegon County Airport, where meteorologists
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have tracked the light on radar. While experts concede that radar alone can be
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misleading, it does add weight to reports and suggests that something might be
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afoot.
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And in Alabama, an accounting teacher and mother of two says her abduction by
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aliens was harrowing. Her story, precise in its detail, echoes the claims of
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hundreds of other alleged abductees who have come out of the closet of late.
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But given all the recent research on false memory syndrome, can anyone accept
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her account, rendered through deep hypnosis, as literally true? Well, it might
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be easier to evaluate if some of the evidence described by abductee Leah Haley
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turns out to be real. From odd scratches and scoops on her skin to weird
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malfunctions in her security system to alleged harassment by military men in
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fatigues. Haley claims to have a plethora of evidence that sets her story
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apart from other, more anecdotal tales.
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These incidents all have one thing in common: They offer evidence that can be
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analyzed, fertile ground for Omni's newest venture, Project Open Book. In our
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effort to examine the UFO phenomenon, our basic question is clear: In the
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midst of all the sightings, all the claims and counterclaims, all the
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abduction scenarios, conspiracy theories and hype, is there any
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incontrovertible evidence, solid as nuts and bolts and plain as day, of
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visitation from on high?
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We feel we are in a good position to pose this question because we have no ax
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to grind. As an editorial staff, we are not yet convinced the invasion has
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begun. Yet we don't have the knee-jerk instinct to debunk material just
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because it's weird. Yes, we agree the universe is vast enough and evolution
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flexible enough to forge intelligent species throughout the cosmos,
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especially on earthlike planets around sunlike stars. Yet we feel the feat of
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interstellar travel would be tricky, even for geniuses of the cosmic kind. In
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the end, there's just one thing we sense for sure: The UFO data suggests a
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mystery - unabiding, unresolved and sometimes downright spooky-in which
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strange phenomena continue to go unexplained.
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In our search for evidence, explaining is mostly what we aim to do. As
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investigators have found in the past, the large majority of UFO sightings are
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rooted in the mundane. Whether sightings have proved to be practical jokes and
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hoaxes, meteors, cloud formations, ball lightning, Soviet satellites, or
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"black" aircraft under development in the United States, some 90 percent of
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all UFO reports investigated are eventually explained. Just sift through our
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past columns on the subject, and you will see that finding real-world
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explanations for the UFO phenomenon has been our impetus throughout.
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In seeking to explain, moreover, Open Book will continue to embrace Omni's
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longstanding policy of informed skepticism. Show-me-from Missouri types, we
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will abide by the skeptic's tenet: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
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levels of proof. In our philosophical universe., if we do not work hard to
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find an explanation-an ordinary explanation-for each and every case we look
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into, then our work has not been done. When we send our researchers out to
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sift through evidence for signs of E.T., you can bet your bottom dollar the
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terrible burden of proof will stay with us. And Open Book's final query will
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always be the same: Is there any evidence that proves, to our satisfaction and
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beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the alien interpretation of UFOs is for
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real?
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UFO researchers have attempted to address this issue from the start. One of
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the first to try to bring the scrutiny of science to bear on UFO sightings was
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the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who, during the 1940s and 1950s, worked as an
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astronomer at the Smithsonian, Northwestern University, Ohio State University,
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and Harvard, producing rigorous papers on electronic satellite tracking and
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supernovas. At first a hardheaded skeptic, Hynek also worked for the Air
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Force, looking into UFO reports for the notorious Project Blue Book. Although
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Blue Book has, in recent years, been discredited as a PR organ of an Air Force
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intent on debunking any and all UFO reports, Hynek himself went through a
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conversion at its helm. As he followed " the program," squelching one UFO flap
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after the next, he began to doubt his own words. "Somewhere along the line,"
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he told Omni, "I realized that I wasn't being scientifically honest. The
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sightings needed further investigation, but we were disregarding them,
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throwing the data away."
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That realization put Hynek on a path he would follow for the rest of his life.
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He began making copies of all the documents to come out of Blue Book and
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gathered data that would allow him to study UFOs as they had never been
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studied before. He classified the various types of reports and even traveled
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around the country investigating the more interesting ones. Hynek agreed that
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many of the sightings could be explained. But, he held, there was "nothing in
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the accepted scientific paradigm to explain them all."
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His obsession resulted, in 1973, in the founding of the Center for UFO Studies
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in Evanston, Illinois. Out of this small operation, run mostly through the
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donations of friends, he produced respected papers and monographs in a field
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replete with misguided enthusiasts, psychopaths, and frauds.
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In the end, the so-called science of J. Allen Hynek went soft. Critics, and
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even friends, began to say he'd become shockingly gullible. He spent some of
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his last days in the luxurious Arizona home of a wealthy, but "anonymous"
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benefactor who subscribed to a psychic interpretation of UFOs and promised
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Hynek he would create for him the most lavish UFO center in the world. When
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Hynek died of brain cancer in April 1986, it was easy for sympathizers to say
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he'd gone insane.
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Today, Hynek's legacy - his original notion that UFOs could be studied with as
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much scientific rigor as a volcano or a lake - lives on in a handful of
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serious researchers and open-minded skeptics who continue to sift through
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evidence, seeking to make sense of the data, to explain. It is in this spirit,
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and in hopes of doing what Blue Book couldn't, that Project Open Book turns
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its first page.
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Because proof, if it exists, might be out there anywhere, we have asked our
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readers to help. Already, our call for evidence has been heard. Thousands of
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readers have written, sending us their thoughts, perceptions and suspicions,
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their photographs, video- and audiotapes, their samples of earthly (or
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unearthly?) leaves, rocks, and offerings from backyards and mountaintops
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throughout the country and the world.
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A reader from Canada describes a mysterious object he says smashed into the
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waters of Shag Harbor, Nova Scotia, three decades ago. "What the Shag Harbor
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UFO crash lacks in high drama, it gains in solid documentation," this eloquent
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letter states. "There were many witnesses, and virtually no one of sufficient
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age in Nova Scotia's Shelburne of Yarmouth counties has forgotten the event. I
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am still uncovering new evidence, and have even interviewed witnesses from the
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Royal Canadian Air Force, Coast Guard, and Police."
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A reader from Staunton, Virginia, described "a bright red" disc in the night
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sky above his home. "In the middle were four round black circles," he reports.
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"When the object floated over the apartments, it seemed to stop and turn one
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of its sides up. The it did something really wonderful-it blinked a good-bye.
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Its speed seemed to go from 200 miles an hour to God-knows-what, and it was
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gone."
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And from the owner of a bed and breakfast inn and dairy farm in northern
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Vermont, we heard this: "Sunday, January 6, 1994 I had two guests from
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Washington, DC. We had been watching a video and when it went off, everyone was
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heading up to bed. My husband was already upstairs, but my son and I and one
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of our guests (an astrophysicist, now lawyer) decided to check the outside
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temperature. We went over to my large front window to look out at the
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thermometer (it was -28 degrees Fahrenheit) and we saw two bright lights in
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the sky across the street. I thought 'helicopter.' But there wasn't any noise
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and the two lights were spaced very wide apart. It moved so slowly. We just
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looked at each other, saying 'What is it?' Regardless of the cold, we ran out
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onto my font porch. It was a very gray sky that night, with the threat of
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snow. The object - two large rectangle shapes connected by a central square of
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triangle - was slowly moving directly toward us, without a sound, and flew
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almost directly over out heads. Only then did I hear a faint rumble, like a
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deeper version of the sound you hear when you place a large seashell up to
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your ear." This witness reports that the local newspaper, the County Courier,
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eventually carried the story, turning up witnesses she hadn't known about at
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all, "In all, eight people reported the sighting," she recalls.
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Finally, we received three separate missives on the saucerlike designs
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registered at the U.S. Patent Office. "There are patents in the patent office
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describing certain flying aircraft not of conventional design," one reader
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tells us. His claim: The patents link many people who have worked on special
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or secret projects. Another reader goes even further. "I have spent several
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years researching current hardware available to build these craft," he states.
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A third informant sent us, via overnight delivery, more than one hundred
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photocopied sheets of the patents themselves.
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A few readers have mentioned the so-called triangle craft, recently witnessed
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over California and elsewhere in the United States. "During the winter of
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1992-1993, I was at Beale AFB, Marysvill, California, and was in my backyard
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with my telescopes," explained one of our readers. "I am an amateur astronomer
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with over thirty years' experience, and was also a trained photo intelligence
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specialist in all types of systems. The date was around the third of March at
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about 10:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. I had just walked out of my warm-up
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shed and was walking back to my telescopes about en feet away when I noticed
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something floating above me, going from southeast to northwest. The craft was
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a triangle shape with two rows of lights going around the middle on the two
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sides and was a light gray on the bottom, possible from the reflected lights
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of the housing area I lived in. There was no sound of any type and no sign of
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engines. The craft looked to be as thick as a C-5A transport, which I have
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seen and flown in many times. The corners and sides were curved and were only
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broken by the two rows of lights. As I stood there with my mouth open, the
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craft traveled out of sight toward the PAVE PAWS radar site, about two miles
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away. For a long time, I thought what I saw was the new Mach +6 reconnaissance
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plane that has flown near Beale for many years, but on reflection, the craft
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was too thick (30 to 50 feet) to travel at such speeds. Having worked with the
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SR71, I can say I have never seen a craft like this, and others here in the
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Sacramento Valley have also seen the same type of craft in January and
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February of this year. . . .Any ideas?"
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Since ideas are the currency Open Book trades in online, our postees have
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given us quite a few. For instance, our online participants have helped us
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fine-tune our notion of what is and what is not legitimate "proof." A few
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people pointed out, for instance, that radar, while an important tool, is not
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valid as the only evidence of a UFO. "Since radar is dependent upon
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electromagnetic waves," we were told, "it may be easily distorted by other
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electromagnetic waves that are man made or natural in origin.
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The consensus can be summed up by this posting: Real evidence, it was
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suggested, would come when, following abduction, and alleged abductee could
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deliver "advance information of an astronomical or physical nature, not known
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to contemporary science but checkable or verifiable ex post facto."
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To help us evaluate the evidence, we have chosen a small but balanced panel
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of experts. Because we need people experienced at UFO investigation, we have
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selected a number of researchers allied with the UFO camp; all UFO researchers
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on our panel have been noted not only for their field work, but also for the
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high quality of their skeptical work. To give some credence to the other side
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of the realm, moreover, we have solicited the help of some noted skeptics.
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Intent on policing the UFO field, these panel members will help us make sure
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we never let down our guard. To provide background and expertise, we have
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recruited experts in aerospace and military craft. To shed some light on the
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human mind, we have asked for help from a few psychologists. And, because
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Omni's roots are, ultimately, journalistic, we've selected a number of
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investigative reporters who will wield their craft to go through data, coming
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up with what we hope is a semblance of truth.
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Already, their investigations have begun. A. J. S. Rayl, an investigative
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journalist most recently writing and producing a CD-ROM on the Search for
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Extraterrestrial Intelligence (or SETI), is speaking with Leah Haley, the
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accountant-abductee. Jerome Clark, editor of the International UFO Reporter,
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is researching the Holland, Michigan, sightings and their radar components.
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Investigative science reporter Patrick Huyghe is on the trail of abduction
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cases in which multiple witnesses (and/or multiple abductees) claim to have
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been involved. Other Open Book panelists have been assigned to investigate the
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saucerlike designs in the U.S. Patent Office, the Nova Scotia water crash,
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and the bed-and-breakfast sighting in Vermont.
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Our panel has also been poking around in the past. Longtime Omni writer Paul
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McCarth, for instance, was intrigued by reports that an Army Air Corps nurse
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helped autopsy aliens recovered from a UFO that crashed near Roswell, New
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Mexico, in July 1947 - and then just disappeared. Top Roswell researchers, in
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fact, told McCarthy they had attempted to find her along with other Roswell
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nurses to no avail, suggesting, perhaps, that they'd been intentionally
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deleted from the record for good. McCarthy decided to track the nurses, and
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thus far, had had astonishing good luck. (Look for his Open Book report in an
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upcoming Omni.)
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And James Oberg, our longtime resident skeptic, an aerospace engineer, and a
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world-class expert on the Soviet space program, has been looking back a decade
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to 1984. His current assignment: bringing new evidence to bear on a Soviet
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sighting already touted as having it all - visual, radar, and physical
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effects. Just added to the mix, Oberg tells us, is a series of sketches that
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now may shed light on the origin of the mysterious apparition as it changed
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shape, color, and size.
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Today, these researchers will help Open Book move forward, joining other
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serious groups across the spectrum, from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) to the
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Committee for the Scientific investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
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(CSICOP), who have been investigating the phenomenon for years. Thanks to our
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readers, our efforts will be fueled by reports coming in at a steady pace from
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around the world. With our own perspective, our own techniques, and our own
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special panel, we throw our hat into the ring. We have no way of knowing what
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we will find - or if we will find anything at all. We only know this: Any
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story we agree to look into must provide plentiful evidence to analyze,
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dissect, and explore. From our camp, without such elements as multiple
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witnesses, physical traces, medical documentation, or electromagnetic effects,
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you have nothing at all.
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In marking our place on the UFO map, we evoke the trajectory of our near-
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namesake-the frustrated Project Blue Book -and its leader, J. Allen Hynek
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himself. In the end, Hynek could mot use science to unlock the mystery of the
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UFO, as he had planned. Near the end of his life, ensconced in a grand
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hacienda in the heart of Arizona's Quartz Mountain, he glimpsed a geographic
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wonder: a mammoth slab of rock sculpted by nature to resemble a monk kneeling
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in prayer. In this gorgeous spot called Paradise Canyon, Hynek discovered
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fervor in his calling. Moved more by religion than reason, more by mysticism
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than science, Hynek the investigator was finally swept away. For him the dream
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had come to this: "I've often said that someday, I would enjoy being snowbound
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on the rocky coast of Maine," he told Omni. "I imagine myself in front of the
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fireplace, keeping my friends entertained for many nights, with one
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interesting UFO tale after the next. I'd enjoy being given the chance, as long
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as the food held out."
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But now, at the cusp of the twentyfirst century, the busboy has come and
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cleared the food away. In a sense, it's sad: Who can deny an attraction to the
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stories? After all, from a literary perspective, UFO yarns can now
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unequivocally take their place among the greatest ghost stories and science-
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fiction stories of our time. No doubt about it, from the tragicomic plight of
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the closet abductee and her frail, halfhuman "hybrid" heirs to the ominous
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stalwart bureaucrat who keeps crashed saucers and alien bodies under lock and
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key, magnificent UFO stories, rich in social commentary and psychological
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truth, abound. The heroes of these tales, be they missing nurses or pale hybrid
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children lost forever to the world of love, have become mythological symbols
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for our time. We will continue to listen to their cries. But now it is also
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time to move on. Kicking and screaming, we must let loose our grip on these
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riveting, beloved allegories and embrace the evidence, leaving literary
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conceits behind.
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On this cautious note, and in hopes of finding some answers, our
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investigation begins.
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T E A M O P E N B O O K
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MEMBERS OF OUR PANEL, LISTED BELOW, WILL HELP US TUN A PAGE IN UFO RESEARCH.
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IF YOU SEND US A REPORT FOR STUDY, IT WILL MOST LIKELY BE FORWARDED TO ONE OF
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THE FOLLOWING:
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PATRICK HUYGHE has been a science writer for 15 years. His work has appeared
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in Omni, The Sciences, Health, and Audubon, among others. He has produced
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documentaries for WGBH- Boston and WNET-New York and consulted on science
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exhibits for the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. He has reported on UFOs
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for Newsweek, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Omni. Particularly
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notable was his investigative expose on the infamous "High Rise Abductee,"
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considered by some UFO researchers to be the case of the century.
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SHERRY BAKER is an Atlanta-based freelance journalist and television consultant
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specializing in medicine, science, and the arts. She has also applied her
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significant investigative skills to the arena of UFOs. She has written on the
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subject for Omni for almost 15 years.
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JEROME CLARK is vice president of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies
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(CUFOS) and edits CUFOS' bimonthly magazine International UFO Reporter. Author
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of a multivolume history of UFOs, he is currently based in Canby, Minnesota.
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JAMES OBERG is a senior space engineer in Huston, where he specializes in
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Mission Control operations for orbital rendezvous as an employee of the
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leading contractor for manned spaceflight operations. He is a widely published
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author on the past, present, and future of space operations around the world
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(and off it), and has written ten books, including Red Star in Orbit,
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universally considered the best inside portrait of the history of Soviet space
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activities, and Uncovering Soviet space activities, and Uncovering Soviet
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Disasters, a look at secrecy and technological shortcomings in the former
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USSR. He privately provides expert assessment of Russian space technology,
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James Oberg has been contributing UFO analyses to Omni magazine since its very
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first issue, when he was the regular "UFO Update" columnist.
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DENNIS STACY, an investigative reporter who has covered the UFO beat for 20
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years, is editor of the MUFON Journal and co-editor and publisher of
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Anomalist. He recently wrote a six-part series on alleged government cover-ups
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for Omni.
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MARK RODIGHIER is director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. He
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specializes in statistics and research methodology as they relate to UFOs, and
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is author of "UFO Reports involving Vehicle interference." He has served on the
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committee that published the recent Abduction Ethics Code, a series of
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guidelines and standards for abduction investigation and therapy.
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PAUL KURTZ, PH.D., is professor of philosophy at the State University of New
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York at Buffalo. He is editor of the magazine, Free Inquiry, former editor of
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the Humanist, and founding chairman of the Committee for the scientific
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Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)
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A. J. S. RAYL is a long-time investigative reporter based in Los Angeles and
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Minnesota. She is currently traveling the country to write and produce an
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encyclopedic CD-ROM on the Search for Extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) for
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Voyager.
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PAUL McCARTHY, PH.D., is an expert in political science who originally wrote
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his thesis on Jim McDonald's efforts to legitimate the study of UFO phenomena
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in scientific circles. Now a freelance writer based in Hawaii, McCarthy has
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covered UFOs and other science topics for Omni for the past decade.
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JENNY RANDLES, director of investigations for the British UFO Research
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Association (BUFORA) from 1981 to 1993, has developed a code of ethics for UFO
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investigators and pushed through a moratorium on the use of hypnotic
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regression to retrieve UFO reports, as well as an outright ban on use without
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medical supervision.
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JOE NICKELL, PH.D., a former magician and private investigator for a world
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famous detective agency, now teaches technical writing at the University of
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Kentucky. He is the author of several books, including Mysterious Realms, a
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casebook of paranormal, forensic, and historical mysteries; Pen. Ink and
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Evidence, a manual on historic document study; and (with psychologist Robert
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Baker) Missing Pieces, a manual for investigating paranormal claims.
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ROBER A. BAKER. PH.D., professor emeritus of psychology at the University of
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Kentucky, is an expert in hypnosis and false memory. He is also the author of
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several books, including Missing Pieces (with colleague Joe Nickell), They
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Call it Hypnosis, and Missing Memory.
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STUART APPELLE, PH.D., associate dean of the School of Letters and Sciences
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and professor of psychology at State University of New York College at
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Brockport, specializes in sensory processing and perception. He has helped
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create the Abduction Ethics Code, a series of guidelines and standards for use
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in abduction investigation and therapy, and is editor of the Journal of UFO
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Studies. A trained hypnotist, Appelle is a member of the Society for Clinical
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and Experimental Hypnosis.
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KEITH HARARY, PH.D., is research director of the institute for Advanced
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Psychology in San Francisco. The author of eight books and more than 100
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articles on memory, learning, dreams, and altered states of consciousness,
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Harary is an expert in coercive persuasion and other manipulative techniques.
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He is also the originator of the reflective method of personality assessment
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and co-developer of the first reflective personality instrument, the Berkeley
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Personality Profile, designed in conjunction with colleagues at the institute
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of Personality and Social Research at the University of California at
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Berkeley.
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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