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What can we do to support valid UFO research?

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Sentry

Paranormal Adept
On his recent Paracast appearance, Antonio Huneeus answered my question:
What can the public do to support valid UFO research?
He didn't have a stock answer ready, but quickly put together several good ideas, and I was impressed at how well he fielded a question that he was unprepared for. Even so, I wasn't completely satisfied, and hope to discuss it further on the board.

I wish I had asked my question more clearly. Here it is again for everyone, broken into two parts:
1) How can we identify what is valid UFO research? (Scientific, rather than fraudulent or incompetent studies.)

2) How can we support and promote worthwhile work that these groups or individuals are doing?

Maybe a third part should be added.
3) How do we weed out the fakes that contaminate the topic?
 
Yow! I'm so opposed to government being involved in UFO research that I failed to even consider it a possibility. While I don't buy the government conspiracy cover-up scenarios, the US (or at least the Air Force) had their shot and blew it. Civilian-directed research is the way to go, but hopefully with the cooperation of military resources and records.
 
how bout an accredited qualification in ufology?
it could be a stamp of approval which could then be used for research groups too like an ABTA stamp for travel agents.
Websites like UFO watchdog could become a paranormal directory for websites and organisations with independent and professional reviews like tripadvisor.com.
 
Yow! I'm so opposed to government being involved in UFO research that I failed to even consider it a possibility. While I don't buy the government conspiracy cover-up scenarios, the US (or at least the Air Force) had their shot and blew it.

Inevitably the government will be involved in this, given the national security implications, and inevitably, it'll know more than civilians, because its means are so much greater. And just as inevitably IMO, it'll conceal stuff, partly because of the unpredictability of the public's reaction...

Civilian-directed research is the way to go, but hopefully with the cooperation of military resources and records.

Yeah right. For 65 years already, we've gotten nothing but denial and disinfo.
 
The suggestion of academic certification is interesting. While I see problems with it, universities offer studies in many intangible or theoretical things, and something must not be established as physically real in order for it to be worthy of thought. If nothing else, examining the reported characteristics of flying saucers prompted aerospace innovations. Those technological advances were accomplished by just doing some scientific thinking about UFOs.
 
It would be good if a Bigelow could cough up the cash to create/host a reporting site/database/wiki that was managed and cross-referenced by the public.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, ufology is far too wide a field to be jammed into the narrow confines of strict scientific methodology and therefore it logically cannot become a science unto itself. Therefore it should not be promoted as a science unto itself or it will continue to suffer criticism by established scientists ( and rightfully so ). That is not to say that science does not have its place in ufology; it most certainly does, but when we are doing actual science we are doing astronomy or meteorology or physics or chemistry ... and applying it to ufology. Or more simply, we are doing science in ufology, not making ufology a science unto itself. By adopting this approach we would be seen as showing greater respect for established science rather than trying to compete with it for what few resources it has. We can also add credibility to ufology through the use of established scientists because their work would be seen as more impartial. The role of ufology ( where science is concerned ) is then to seek out and gather evidence, or even better lead scientists to the evidence, and then to report on the scientific analysis in a journalistic fashion. Lastly, none of this precludes the possibility of ufologists with scientific credentials doing ufology. The better educated the ufology community is, the better off we are ... so long as we don't get too intellectually elite about it. It might help to have rocket scientists like Stan Friedman among the ranks, but it doesn't take one to figure out that UFOs and rockets are two totally different things.
 
John Alexander keeps saying that one big step in the right direction is to remove the stigma attached to studying the topic. As it is, UFOs can be toxic to career advancement, and some policemen, military and commercial pilots have seen UFOs and not reported them for this reason. I imagine scientists feel the same way. They may choose to ignore the phenomenon to avoid having it "pollute" their work or professional reputation.
 
John Alexander keeps saying that one big step in the right direction is to remove the stigma attached to studying the topic. As it is, UFOs can be toxic to career advancement, and some policemen, military and commercial pilots have seen UFOs and not reported them for this reason. I imagine scientists feel the same way. They may choose to ignore the phenomenon to avoid having it "pollute" their work or professional reputation.

But is it really a stigma today? Or is it mostly corporate politics? The topic of UFOs has been around now for so long and has been covered by so many TV shows, that almost everyone has some familiarity with it. People talk about it freely and many people readily accept that the phenomenon is real. So perhaps it's more the case that actual involvement offends some wider corporate policy than there is any particular stigma against UFOs. For example, if we substitute a UFO incident for some unplanned appearance by a celebrity, there would also be a whole bunch of unplanned paperwork and media exposure to contend with and there will always be some corporate executive who gets their nose out of joint because it should not have happened without their prior approval. So it could just as easlily be a Kate Middleton sighting that some employee mentions to the wrong person. These days it's not uncommon for employees to get flak over things as mundane as Facebook postings. But UFOs don't care about corporate politics. They have impunity. So what do companies do? They download their angst onto the witness. If there are no witnesses there are no problems ... no extra paperwork, no media to contend with. So what might we conclude from this? Perhaps we are unwittingly participating in perpetuating the stigma by constantly making references to it and overemphasizing skeptical ridicule when the larger problem is within modern corporate and political culture in general.
 
Get rid of the crackpots and wackos .

There are crackpots and wackos in every field ... teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians ... all the so called "respectable" professions, and you can never just "get rid" of them. But ufology has one advantage in that the entire field is so colorful and interesting that even the crackpots and wackos have a place in the history of the subject. The important thing is to keep them in perspective through education. At least that's what we try to do here at USI.
 
It's not going to be very exciting, but the first step in cleaning things up is to purge all the anecdotes, speculation and fantasy. Then, there can be a focus solely on the data. Dr. Hynek and Jacques Vallée were struggling with this problem long ago. They realized that UFO buffs, despite their enthusiasm, do little to solving any of the mystery. Worse, their appetite for infotainment fuels the bogus claims of the frauds crackpots and whackos.

 
It's not going to be very exciting, but the first step in cleaning things up is to purge all the anecdotes, speculation and fantasy. Then, there can be a focus solely on the data. Dr. Hynek and Jacques Vallée were struggling with this problem long ago. They realized that UFO buffs, despite their enthusiasm, do little to solving any of the mystery. Worse, their appetite for infotainment fuels the bogus claims of the frauds crackpots and whackos.

When those in the medical profession try to "out" the crackpots, the crackpots come back with a retort essentially saying that they are offering "The Secrets the Medical Establishment Doesn't Want You to Know" and continue about how the profession is trying to silence them. As always, they sell the idea that They and only They are willing to offer you The Entire Truth.... As soon as you subscribe to their newsletter, pay for the details and buy whatever product(s) they're hocking. The more these crackpots are denounced, the more ammo they have showing how the establishment is oppressing them. There is a large segment of the society that will always accept this logic, in part because they feel their personal needs are not being addressed by mainstream medical professionals and in part because some people will believe any conspiracy theory.

As this occurs in an industry as regulated as our medical system, what luck will we have in purging the crackpots from the paranormal fields, which by definition is a study of events that have no scientific explanation?


par·a·nor·mal   [par-uh-nawr-muhl]
adjective
of or pertaining to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena.
Paranormal | Define Paranormal at Dictionary.com

Any purging of the "crackpots" (which may well be the purging of those who don't offer popular theories or simply lack a media personality) will doubtless be met with a similar outcome. There will be the "Mainstream UFO Clique" and there will be the "Uncorrupted Outsiders", who doubtless haven't been infiltrated by Men in Black types spreading their disinformation. There will also be a large segment of the population who will consistently follow the "Uncorrupted Outsiders", no matter how wacky these outsiders may seem, because they feel their own personal experiences have been dismissed or they feel the whole topic of UFOs has been popularized to the point of being ridiculous. Add into this equation those who are simply addicted to conspiracy theories and feel the best evidence is a lack of evidence. "Crackpots" are here to stay, folks.

At the same time, we should remember that a large percentage of all paranormal discussions and investigations will include anecdotal evidence because we lack the scientific tools to adequately measure and reference this. Do we automatically dismiss eyewitness testimony if a phenomenon cannot be measured or recorded by other methods? If we lack hard science to determine an explanation for an unusual occurrence, doesn't this leave us with speculation? Much of what we now consider hard science began as speculation before we had the tools and ability to study it scientifically (think Germ Theory, among others).

I keep saying that I believe much of what is currently considered paranormal may well be scientifically proven once we have the tools and knowledge to do so. Until then, we're left with anecdotal evidence, speculation and an understanding that something we don't quite understand keeps being reported by people all over the world, throughout history. Keep this in mind when trying to dismiss the "crackpots" whose investigations include researching eyewitness testimony and gathering other anecdotal evidence when other evidence may simply be unavailable. I suspect our dear hosts are considered "crackpots" in many circles, simply for researching and reporting on topics not (yet) embraced by mainstream science.
 
You want to know what you can do to support "real" UFO research? Easy, concentrate on funding hard-data gathering projects like the SLV Skywatch Project. We need a mere $30,000 to finish installing a state-of-the-art, seven camera monitoring of one of America's most active UFO hot-spots. This would also include: radar, recording gravitometer and magnetometer. For another $30,000 we would add FLIR, etc There is NO substitute for hard-data that cannot be dismissed by mainstream science and academia.
<-----chris climbs down from his soapbox, redfaced...
 
You want to know what you can do to support "real" UFO research? Easy, concentrate on funding hard-data gathering projects like the SLV Skywatch Project. We need a mere $30,000 to finish installing a state-of-the-art, seven camera monitoring of one of America's most active UFO hot-spots. This would also include: radar, recording gravitometer and magnetometer. For another $30,000 we would add FLIR, etc There is NO substitute for hard-data that cannot be dismissed by mainstream science and academia.
<-----chris climbs down from his soapbox, redfaced...

I may be asking some dumb questions and if so, I apologize in advance:

Hasn't FUFOR offered up grants for those studying UFOs? If so, couldn't this money be used to get the camera monitoring systems?

Has anyone looked into getting other grants for paranormal/UFO research?

I don't know which, if any, organizations you are a member. This can make a huge difference in determining what grants are available to you and admittedly some of the grants can be rather small. The difficulty in getting a grant and the amount offered depend entirely upon the organization.

I'm afraid of stepping on toes as I have no idea what all you've done or are planning to do for funding. I also know that many people are completely unaware regarding what options are available to them. Anyway, if you haven't already done so, this may be worth exploring.

Again, I apologize if I've stated the obvious or asked stupid questions.

Thanks.
 
You want to know what you can do to support "real" UFO research? Easy, concentrate on funding hard-data gathering projects like the SLV Skywatch Project. We need a mere $30,000 to finish installing a state-of-the-art, seven camera monitoring of one of America's most active UFO hot-spots. This would also include: radar, recording gravitometer and magnetometer. For another $30,000 we would add FLIR, etc There is NO substitute for hard-data that cannot be dismissed by mainstream science and academia.

So, you expect that, if only you had more $ and equipment, you could clinch the case for the existence of UFOs? Two facts suggest otherwise: the phenomenon has always denied us (lay people at least) conclusive proof or very strong evidence, and it is very sophisticated. If you set up good monitoring gear somewhere, they'd either avoid the area or maybe jinx it somehow--blurry images or something.
 
So, you expect that, if only you had more $ and equipment, you could clinch the case for the existence of UFOs? Two facts suggest otherwise: the phenomenon has always denied us (lay people at least) conclusive proof or very strong evidence, and it is very sophisticated. If you see up good monitoring gear somewhere, they'd either avoid the area or maybe jinx it somehow--blurry images or something.
You never know until you try. This approach has never been tried before so how do you truly know if it will work or not unless you do it? I believe it can work. Hi-rez camera images combined w/ gravitometer and magnetometer data obtained from a proven hotspot is worth the time and energy to pursue. Of course we'll also get a few boo-birds, as well, but that comes w/ the territory.
 
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