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30 May 2023
REUNIÓN PÚBLICA DE LA NASA SOBRE EL TEMA U.A.P.
NASA PUBLIC MEETING ON U.A.P.
This NASA public meeting doesn't know precedents. For the firs time, scientists and experts convened by the Administration to deal with the U.A.P. subject, will talk publicly and answer the questions the public could pose.
This is a unique event.
This won't be the NASA report on UAP. That report will come during June. But it is the first approach that maybe could shed some light about what could be expected.
Here is the official announcement from NASA.
Give attention to the date and time --and your local time-- and the URL to find the live video of this meeting.
24 May 2023
MY TAKE ABOUT THE UAP WITNESS TESTIMONIES
MY TAKE ABOUT THE UAP WITNESS TESTIMONIES
What follows simply emerges from my direct experience of having investigated personally dozens and dozens of cases during the 50 years of intense activity developed by the Unidentified Flying Objects Investigation Center (Centro de Investigación de Objetos Voladores Inidentificados) in Uruguay.
1) The witnesses say the truth: As I have said many times publicly, the witnesses say the truth. Generally, they saw something that they were unable to identify and they report that as unidentified. Exceptionally there could be witnesses that lie just because they are looking to get money for the story or publicity, being interviewed on TV, etc.
2) The culture is responsible for the wrong interpretation: the influence of the press in all their forms, but mainly through television and newspapers, faked videos, and stories circulating in the Internet, shape the way a witness can interpret what he/she is seeing. There comes along the wrong use of the adjective “unidentified” because there is a tendency to assimilate that classification to “spaceship”, vulgo: UAP.
3) The total absence or nearly absence of scientists willing to deal with the UAP subject worsens the situation. Regretfully, there has been historically a tendency in the scientific community not to engage or deal with the UAP subject. Had the scientists –particularly those involved in Astronomy and Physics— participated actively in educating the people, an enormous amount of time, working hours, money spent, and confusion, could have been effectively avoided. Fortunately, the official investigation of UAP reports led by the Defense Department (the AARO) and the independent initiative with the same purpose done by NASA have scientific Directors. Dr.Sean Kirkpatrick and Dr.David Spergel, respectively.
4) Discrepancies among scientists also contribute to the confusion of the public. When people as Dr. J. Allen Hynek –who agreed in his role as advisor to the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, which brought many contents of his book “The UFO Experience a Scientific Inquiry” of 1972, to the screen; Dr. Jacques Vallée with his “cocktail” of cases in his “Passport to Magonia” of 1970; Dr.James McDonald, pushing the E.T. agenda in front of legislators, Dr. David R. Saunders and his book “UFOs? Yes!” of 1968; Dr. Michio Kaku in some of his videos, the current SCU (Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies) in relation with the so-called “Aguadilla Case” in Puerto Rico, and –last but not least—Astrophysicist Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb, and his idea that Omuamua was an “interstellar visitor” really create confusion among the “man on the street”. Whom to believe?
5) The eventual witness of something that for him/her is strange, is left to his/her own devices. That is the real situation. We cannot blame the witnesses, on the one hand, and we cannot discredit them on the other hand, because usually their reaction confronted with something apparently or really strange, won’t be the cold and ordered discernment of the possibilities that “that thing” could be something natural or artificial but well known.
6) It is the undeniable obligation of scientists, investigators, and scholars to study the cases, search for their logical and verifiable solutions, and educate the people using all the possible media. The contact with the press, --especially TV—has demonstrated to be the appropriate media through which it is possible to illustrate and teach about how and what kind of supposed UAPs, end up being IAPs. There is a need to educate people about the many things that could confuse them and make them think that they are in front of something extraordinary when that is not the case.
7) Consideration apart deserves the situations where there is not a simple witness of something seen in the sky, but an active participant in situations in which the person complains to have been abused in many physical ways while abducted.
The vast literature on the subject –“The Interrupted Journey” by John G. Fuller, 1966; “Missing Time: Startling Revelation of Alien-Human Contact” , 1981; “Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions” 1981; “ Intruders – the incredible visitations at Copley Woods” 1987; “Witnessed: true story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction“, 1996; “Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Transgenic Beings” 2003; “Art. Life and UFOs: A Memoir”, 2009; all these books by Budd Hopkins; “Transformation – The Breakthrough” by Whitley Strieber, 1989; “UFO Abductions a Dangerous Game” by Philip J.Klass, 1989; “Secret Life – Firsthand accounts of UFO Abductions” by David M.Jacobs, 1992; “Abduction – Human Encounters with Aliens” by Dr. John E. Mack, 1995; “Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis” by Dr.Susan Blackmore, article published in 1998; “Abducted – how people come to believe they were kidnapped by aliens” by Dr. Susan A. Clancy, 2005; shows how relevant this issue became during some years. Currently, one has the impression that it has diminished or ceased.
There could be more than one explanation for this kind of situation.
a) movies and “documentaries” shown on “History Channel” plus literature and the press, in general, have contributed to disseminating this idea that “aliens” are abducting people.
b) individuals with personalities prone to fantasy, easily influenced, or living lives out of the normal, are clearly victims of believing in the abduction and with a high possibility to experience one by themselves.
c) the vast majority of abduction cases become known through hypnosis, a procedure rejected by science and not accepted by tribunals.
d) many of the hypnosis have been done by people not specifically trained to do so. That is the case of the late plastic artist Budd Hopkins and the historian David M. Jacobs. An exception was Dr. John Mack, but no one can dismiss the fact that besides the questioned procedure, it allows the hypnotist to influence on the abductee and what he or she says under hypnosis, to the point –and this is verifiable—that there is possible to discern who has been the hypnotist according to the story related by the abductee.
From my viewpoint, the “abduction phenomenon” should be put aside, because worst of all, it presupposes the presence and activity of alien entities on our planet, and that extreme has still to be scientifically demonstrated and confirmed.
What it is possible in some cases, is that certain individuals have been victims of a staged operation typical of intelligence.
8) What is left to us? Be the guardians of the truth, educate the public, perfect our investigation and study, and perform the Aero-Space Identification process. Create multi-disciplinary teams including Astronomers, Physics, Meteorologists, Medicine Doctors, Psychologists, Sociologists, Biologists, Photo and Video Analysts, and eventually any other discipline needed for a given case.
Be “down-to-earth” but also not closed-minded, because the history of Science is full of surprises.
Mg. Milton W. Hourcade
Iowa City, May 22, 2023.
MI ENFOQUE SOBRE LOS TESTIMONIOS DE OBSERVADORES DE UAP
MI ENFOQUE SOBRE LOS TESTIMONIOS DE OBSERVADORES DE UAP
Lo que sigue simplemente emerge de mi directa experiencia habiendo investigado personalmente decenas y decenas de casos durante los 50 años de intensa actividad desarrollada por el CIOVI (Centro de Investigación de Objetos Voladores Inidentificados) en Uruguay.
1) Los testigos dicen la verdad: Como lo he dicho muchas veces públicamente, los testigos dicen la verdad. Generalmente, vieron algo que no fueron capaces de identificar y lo denuncian como no-identificado. Excepcionalmente puede haber testigos que mientan simplemente porque están buscando hacer dinero con su historia, o publicidad, ser entrevistados en TV, etc.
2) La cultura es responsable por la errónea interpetación : la influencia de la prensa en todas sus formas, pero mayormente televisión y diarios, falsos videos e historias circulando en la Internet, forman la manera en que un/a testigo puede interpretar lo que está viendo. Viene también el uso equivocado del adjetivo “no-identificado” porque existe la tendencia a asimilar esa clasificación a “nave espacial extraterrestre”, vulgo: FANI.
3) La ausencia total o casi ausencia de científicos que quieran tratar el tema UAP (FANI) empeora la situación. Lamentablemente, históricamente ha habido en la comunidad científica una tendencia a no comprometerse o tratar el tema UAP. Si los científicos –particularmente aquellos involucrados en Astronomía y Física— hubieran participado activamente en educar a la gente, una enorme cantidad de tiempo, horas de trabajo, dinero invertido y confusión, se habrían evitado efectivamente. Afortunadamente, la investigación oficial de las denuncias de UAP liderada por el Departamento de Defensa (la AARO) y la iniciativa independiente con el mismo propósito hecha por la NASA, tienen directores científicos: el Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick y el Dr. David Spergel, respectivamente.
4) Discrepancias entre científicos también contribuyen a la confusión del público. Cuando personas como el Dr. J. Allen Hynek –que aceptó su papel como asesor de la película “Encuentros Cercanos del Tercer Tipo”, la cual llevó muchos contenidos de su libro “The UFO Experience a Scientific Inquiry” de 1972, a la pantalla; el Dr. Jacques Vallée con su “cocktail” de casos en su “Pasaporte a Magonia” de 1970; el Dr. James McDonald, impulsando la agenda E.T. frente a legisladores; el Dr. David R. Saunders y su libro “UFOs? Yes!” de 1968; el Dr. Michio Kaku en algunos de sus videos, la actual SCU, Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies [Coalición Científica para el Estudio de los UAP] en relación al llamado “Caso Aguadilla” en Puerto Rico, y –último pero no menos importante— el Astrofísico Abraham (Avi) Loeb, y su idea de que Omuamua es un “visitante interestelar” verdaderamente crean confusión para “el hombre de la calle”. ¿A quién creer?
5) El/la eventual testigo de algo que para él/ella es extraño, es abandonado/a a sus propios criterios. Esta es la situación real. No podemos culpar a los testigos, por un lado, y no podemos desacreditarles por el otro, porque usualmente su reacción --confrontados con algo aparentemente o verdaderamente extraño-- no sea el frío y ordenado discernimiento de posibilidades de que “esa cosa” pueda ser algo natural o artificial pero bien conocido.
6) Es la innegable obligación de científicos, investigadores y estudiosos, analizar los casos, buscar por sus lógicas y verificables soluciones, y educar a las persons usando todos los medios posibles. El contacto con la prensa, --especialmente la TV— ha demostrado ser el medio apropiado a través del cual es posible ilustrar y educar acerca de cómo y qué tipo de supuestos UAPs terminan siendo IAPs. Hay una necesidad de educar a las personas acerca de las muchas cosas que les pueden confundir y hacer que piensen que están frente a algo extraordinario cuando ese no es el caso.
7) Consideración aparte merecen las situaciones donde no hay un/a simple testigo de algo visto en el cielo, sino una activa participación en situaciones en las cuales la persona se queja de haber sido abusada en varias formas físicas mientras estuvo abducida.
La vasta literatura sobre este tema – “The Interrupted Journey” [El viaje interrumpido] por John G. Fuller, 1966; “Missing Time: Startling Revelation of Alien-Human Contact” [Tiempo Faltante: La Sorprendente Revelación del Contacto Alienígena-Humano”, 1981; “Missing Time: A Documented Study of UFO Abductions” [Tiempo Faltante: Un Documentado Estudio de Abducciones por OVNI] 1981; “Intruders – the incredible visitations at Copley Woods” [Intrusos – las increíbles apariciones en Copley Woods” 1987; “Witnessed: true story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction” [ Atestiguada: la verdadera historia de la Abducción en el Puente de Brooklyn] 1996; “Sight Unseen: Science, UFO Invisibility and Tansgenic Beings” [Espectáculo No Visto: Ciencia, Invisibilidad OVNI y Seres Transgénicos” , 2003; “Art, Life and UFOs: A Memoir” [Arte, Vida y OVNIs: Una Autobiografía”, 2009, todos estos libros por Budd Hopkins; “Transformation – The Breakthrough” [Transformación – El Descubrimiento] por Whitley Strieber, 1989; “UFO Abductions a Dangerous Game” [Abducciones por OVNI un Juego Peligroso] por Philip J. Klass, 1989; “Secret Life- Firsthand accounts of UFO Abductions” [Vida Secreta- Relatos de Primera Mano de Abducciones por OVNI] por David M. Jacobs, 1992; “Abduction – Human Encounters with Aliens” [Abducción – Encuentro Humano con Alienígenas] por el Dr. John E. Mack, 1995; “Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis” [Abducción por Alienígenas o Parálisis del Sueño] por la Dra. Susan Blackmore, artículo publicado en 1998; “Abducted – how people come to believe they were kidnapped by aliens” [Abducido/a – cómo la gente llega a creer que ha sido secuestrada por alienígenas] por la Dra. Susan A. Clancy, 2005; muestra cuán relevante llegó a ser este tema durante algunos años. Actualmente, se tiene la impresión de que ha disminuido o cesado.
Puede haber más de una explicación para este tipo de situación.
a) películas y “documentales” mostrados en el “History Channel” más literatura y la prensa, en general, han contribuido a diseminar esta idea de que “extraterrestres” están secuestrando personas.
b) individuos con personalidades propensas a la fantasía, fácilmente influenciables, o viviendo vidas fuera de lo normal, son claramente víctimas de creer en la abducción y con la alta posibilidad de experimentar una por sí mismos.
c) la vasta mayoría de los casos de abducción llegan a ser conocidos a través de hipnosis, un procedimiento rechazado por la ciencia y no aceptado en tribunales.
d) muchas de las hipnosis han sido hechas por personas no entrenadas específicamente para hacerlas. Ese es el caso del fallecido artista plástico Budd Hopkins y del historiador David M. Jacobs. Una excepción fue el Dr. John Mack, pero nadie puede desestimar el hecho de que además del procedimiento cuestionado, el mismo permite al hipnotista influir en el abducido/a y lo que diga bajo hipnosis, al punto –y esto es verificable— de que es posible discernir quién ha sido el hipnotista según la historia relatada por el/la abducido/a.
Desde mi punto de vista, el “fenómeno abducción” debe ser puesto a un lado, porque lo peor de todo, es que presupone la presencia y actividad de entidades alienígenas en nuestro planeta, y ese extremo aún tiene que ser científicamente demostrado y confirmado.
Lo que es posible en algunos casos, es que ciertos individuos hayan sido víctimas de una operación escenificada, típica de inteligencia.
8) ¿Qué queda para nosotros? Ser guardianes de la verdad, educar al público, perfeccionar nuestra investigación y estudio y llevar a cabo el proceso de Identificación Aero-Espacial. Crear equipos multidisciplinarios incluyendo Astrónomos, Físicos, Meteorólogos, Psicólogos, Sociólogos, Médicos, Biólogos, Analistas de Fotos y Videos y eventualmente de cualquier otra disciplina necesaria para un caso dado.
Estar con los pies en tierra pero no tener la mente cerrada, porque la historia de la Ciencia está llena de sorpresas.
Milton W. Hourcade
Iowa City, Mayo 22 de 2023.
23 May 2023
NEW BOOK: THE RELIABILITY OF UFO WITNESS TESTIMONY
We have the pleasure to share with you the announcement of this book of 711 pages, of which one of the Editors is our dear friend and UAPSG member, Mr. Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos. The other is Richard W. Heiden, an old time Ufologist.
ANNOUNCEMENT - NEW BOOK RELEASE (May 2023)
The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony
V.J. Ballester-Olmos & Richard W. Heiden (Eds.)
For 76 years, casual observers around the world have reported sightings of aerial phenomena unexplainable to them. More elaborate personal experiences have been reported by others whose testimony speak of close interactions with fantastic flying machines that land, from which strange beings descend, and even kidnap the onlookers. In the absence of compelling physical evidence of the reality of these narrations, how should science study immaterial observations and test these claims? The very standard of reputable witness reliability is at stake here.
The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony is the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies. This is a cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60authors from 14 different countries. They are specialists in social, physical, and biological sciences, including psychology (predominantly) as well as psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, folklore, religion, journalism, engineering, computing, medicine, education, analysts with experience in the critical study of UFO perceivers, and other professionals. This volume shares thematically convergent ideas about the plausibility of alternate explanations for an alleged close-range UFO phenomenon. The 57 chapters in this book are divided into seven section headings: Case Studies, Psychological Perspectives, On Witness Testimony, Empirical Research, Anthropological Approach, Metrics and Scaling, and Epistemological Issues. There, the subject matter is analyzed from statistical work to clinical assessment, psychometrics, comparative and evaluation inquiry, and other topic perspectives. Some extracts from the Foreword, written by Dr. Leonard S. Newman, Professor of Psychology at Syracuse University: The contributors to this book include some very smart people. There are all sorts of issues to which they could be devoting their intellectual energy, and all sorts of scholarly and research contributions they could make. They don’t have to write thoughtful and rigorous chapters for a book called The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, but this is what they have done. And so, the work continues, as attested to by the papers in this volume. I’m not sure if there exists any collection of papers on any topic that can claim to comprehensively summarize everything that is currently known about it. But this one comes pretty close.
This 711-page book has been released online in the Academia.edu portal, from where it can be downloaded for free: https://www.academia.edu/101922617/
The_Reliability_of_UFO_Witness_Testimony Simultaneously, UPIAR Publishing House (Turin, Italy) has published two softcover, A4 format print editions, one in black & white, another in full color (ISBN: 9791281441002).
To purchase the book, go through this link: http://www.upiar.com/index.cfm?artID=201 Four outstanding academics have provided praise notes to this volume. They wrote: Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, USA
When ordinary citizens claim to have extraterrestrial encounters, such as seeing UFOs or meeting with alien beings, what should we think? Did the alien abduction really happen or was it a hoax? Is someone deliberately lying? Are they false memories? Readers will be enthralled by the fascinating case histories that are presented in The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, a volume where sixty experts examine these issues with depth and insight. These cases teach us a great deal about how humans come to believe they have experienced bizarre events that may have never occurred at all. Steven Jay Lynn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA This captivating book will appeal to anyone interested in UFOs (and who isn’t?), the vagaries of memory, eyewitness perception and misperception, critical analysis of puzzling phenomena, and evaluating scientific vs. pseudoscientific claims. This volume ranks in the elite category of essential reading for students, scientists, and the seriously curious among us, and therefore has my highest recommendation. Bravo! Henry Otgaar, Ph.D., Professor of Legal Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and Leuven Catholic University, Belgium Claims of UFO sightings and experiences continue to fascinate us. This book has collected a unique and diverse set of case studies and critical articles on how such experiences unfold and what the authenticity of these claims is. The collection of these different articles is truly groundbreaking and is the first-ever complete assemblage concerning the validity of UFO testimony. Benjamin E. Zeller, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Religion, Lake Forest College, Illinois, USA In referring to extraterrestrial contact, Carl Sagan said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This fine book seeks to contextualize what such evidence entails. Its contributors analyze UFO sightings and cases both famous and obscure, recent and historical, and quite international in scope. They draw from an impressive range of methodological, academic, and scientific perspectives, and consider such topics as the nature of cognition, memory, types of belief and testimony, psychology, and the rationality of belief. Skeptics, believers, and scholars of ufology will all find this book fascinating!
For additional information please contact:
UPIAR Publisher: info info@upiar.com
Editor>V.J.Ballester-Olmos, ballesterolmos@yahoo.es