06 September 2018

A SURVEY AMONG U.A.P. INVESTIGATORS AND SCHOLARS - PART IX

It is a wonderful experience to get the opinion of a very selective group of people at an international level and get them together giving answers to just 8 questions referred to the Unusual Aerial Phenomena.


We give a big thanks to all those colleagues who are answering our survey and we are very pleased to present to you their ideas. We hope that what they say would be useful to you in your own work with the UAP and that their criteria would help to shape your own one.


We continue today the publication of the answers of these colleagues, and we are doing so in the order they were received.
 

Clas Svahn (AFU chairman and our foremost collector of donations) was born in Mariestad, Sweden, 1958. Studied at the University for Journalism (Journalisthögskolan), Gothenburg.
Since 1990 Clas works as a journalist with Dagens Nyheter (Stockholm), Sweden’s largest morning newspaper. Also an expert reviewer for UFO, science fiction and other related books for the Swedish public libraries.
Founded the local group UFO-Mariestad in 1974, member of UFO-Sweden’s board since 1988 and chairman of that national group since 1991. Vice chairman of Archives of UFO Research. Co-editor and driving force behind UFO-Sweden’s magazine “UFO-Aktuellt”. Clas has made regular visits to the UK to collect archives for ufologists and forteanists for preservation with AFU.
Publications (books):
UFOs:
Contributor with Anders Liljegren to ”UFOs 1947–1987 – The 40-year Search for an Explanation” (Fortean Tomes 1987) edited by Hilary Evans and John Spencer; ”Contributor with Anders Liljegren to ”Phenomenon”(Futura 1988) edited by John Spencer and Hilary Evans; “Domstensfallet – en svensk närkontakt 1958″ with Anders Liljegren (“The Domsten case – a Swedish close encounter in 1958″, AFU 1989); “Mötet i gläntan” with Gösta Carlsson (“The encounter in the clearing”, NTB Parthenon 1995); “UFO-Mysteriet – från flygande tefat till cirklar i sädesfälten” (“The UFO mystery”, Parthenon 1998); “Fakta om UFO” (“Facts about UFOs”, Parthenon 1998) with Göran Norlén; Contributor with Anders Liljegren to ”UFO’s & Alien Contact” (Prometheus Books 1998) edited by Robert Bartholomew and George Howard; “UFO – möte med det okända” (“UFO – encounter with the unknown”, Semic 2000); Contributor to ”Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics (McFarland & Co 2001) by Robert Bartholomew; Contributor with two chapters to ”UFOs and government” (Anomalist Books 2012) edited by Michael Swords and Robert Powell.

Unusual natural phenomena:
”Stora boken om naturfenomen” (”The big book on naural phenomena, Semic, 2008); ”Naturfenomen” (”Natural phenomena”, Semic 2011).

The unknown:
Contributor to ”Övernaturligt” (”Supernatural”, Semic 1997); Contributor to ”Oförklarligt” (”Unexplainable”, Semic 1998); Contributor to ”Gåtfullt” (”Enigmatic”, Semic 1999); “Det okända” (“The Unknown”, Semic 2006), ”Berättelser om det okända” (“Tales of the unknown”, Semic 2008); ”Möten med det okända” (”Encounters with the unknown”, Semic 2009); ”Vålnader, utomjordingar och mystiska fenomen” (”Ghost, aliens and strange phenomena”, Semic 2010).

Conspiracy theories:
Main contributor to “Världens största konspirationer” (“The world’s largest conspiracies”, Semic 2002).

Cults:
”Sekter och hemliga sällskap” (”Cults and secret societies”, Semic 2007); ”Sekter, hemliga sällskap och domedagsprofeter” (”Cults, secret societies and doomes day prophets”, Semic 2012.

Other books:
Contributor to ”Historiens största mordgåtor” (”The world’s greatest murder enigmas”, Semic 2004); Contributor to ”Himlen över Aspen” (”The sky over Aspen”, Göteborgs universitet 2007) edited by Mats Fahlgren; Contributor to ”Tintiniana” (Asterion 2009) edited by Björn Wahlberg.

Find Clas Svahn’s UFO-Sweden blog here and his blog on “Curiosities” at Dagens Nyheter here.

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1) Do you use the acronym UFO or another designation, and if so, why?

UFO works fine here in Sweden. 


2) Have your idea about UFOs changed along the time?

Not really. Started investigating in 1974 and have of course learned a lot about the human mind and misinterpretations but I still think that there are several phenomena that are unexplained at this point. 


3) Should the UFO investigator become an expert in IFOs?

Absolutely. If not, he or she can not investigate reports. 


4) If there were still some unexplained phenomena, what could they be?

Don’t know. But some are physical. 


5) How do you consider this issue in general? What do you think about the whole subject?

That it has several problems not least with unqualified “researchers” and to much speculation and wishful thinking. 


6) Is it possible to do something effective to bring the truth to the public and to change the mind of those who still proclaim or believe that extraterrestrial beings are living with us on Earth?

This is not what I am focusing on. I want to present good facts from thorough investigations. But I would love to see more open minded people that are not jumping to conclusions without facts. And what is “the truth”? We can only try and do a scientifically based job that others can trust. 


7) Do you think SETI and similar searches are valid activities?

Yes. Absolutely. 


8) What is your idea about multiple universes?

There can very well be other parallel universes. Cosmos is stranger than we can fathom at this point in our history. 



Next publication: answers of Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos - from Spain and UAPSG Member








 

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