Hi readers,
Well its a really hot 39 degrees celsius in Adelaide today, so it's a very good time for sitting under the air conditioner and doing some thinking.
The subject of today's post has been at the back of my mind for several weeks now. I wanted to compare the conclusions reached about UFOs by the Australian, United Kingdom and New Zealand Defence Intelligence areas of their respective Defence Forces. This line of thinking all started when I re-read some material on the Disclosure Australia (DA) website (http://disclosureaustralia.freewebpages.org )
Australian considerations:
The DA website contains a paper by my co-blogger, Keith Basterfield, titled "Scientific Intelligence and the UFO question in Australia" written in 2008. A two year correspondence between Keith and the Minister for Defence, resulted in the release of a formerly "secret" file. This file was titled "Scientific Intelligence - General - Unidentified Flying Objects" and is available from the National Archives of Australia, being file series JIO63, control symbol 3092/2/000, date range 1957-1971.
The file was held by the Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) which later became the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO,) within the Australian Department of Defence (DOD.) It is currently called the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO.)This agency, whatever its name has been the main intelligence area of the DOD.
The role of the JIB/JIO was to collect, collate, analyse and distribute within the government, information relating to defence intelligence, i.e. strategic political, military, economic and scientific, about other countries.
What was the JIB/JIO take on UFOs?
The following is taken from papers on the formerly "secret" file. Mathams, DSTI replied to the DD(C) on 2 February 1970:
"...my views on the subject of UFOs, from a scientific point of view , are as follows:
(a) The present establishment of DSTI...no surplus research capacity within the establishment that could be diverted to problems such as the investigation of UFO reports.
(b) I am not convinced that there is a sufficient scientific intelligence component in the UFO problem, such as to warrant any diversion of Australia's very limited resources for scientific intelligence research..."
On 3 February 1970 the DD(C)McMichael, wrote to DSTI:
"I am sure that there is an area of investigation that should be pursued by some authority...I have considered carefully whether a part of the subject might be undertaken by us, but this approach doesn't seem practicable..."
On 27 March 1971 the Director JIO R W Furlonger, wrote to the Deputy Secretary B:
"There appears to be sufficient evidence from RAAF and US reports of investigations of UFO sightings to indicate that some reports cannot readily be explained by natural phenomena or man-made activities..."
To sum it up, the Australian DOD defence intelligence area said that there was some merit in the UFO phenomenon that should be investigated by someone, but it wouldn't be them.
Elsewhere, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) a part of the DOD were officially charged with investigating Australian UFO reports (which they referred to as Unusual Aerial Sightings UAS) stated time after time in their files that their task was to assess UFO reports for any possible threat to Australian national security.
After investigating UFO reports from at least the early 1950's to 1984, on 2 May 1984 the DOD announced:
"The RAAF in future will investigate fully only those Unusual Aerial Sightings (UAS) which suggest a defence or national security implication."
In 1994 the DOD went further:
"Consideration of the scientific record suggests that, whilst not all UAS have a ready explanation, here is no compelling reasons for the RAAF to continue to devote resources...The RAAF no longer accepts reports on UAS..."
With that announcement, the Australian government officially closed any UFO investigations.
In summary, in 1971 the Defence Intelligence area of the Australian DOD recognised that there some unexplainable UFO reports, and in 1994 the DOD agreed that not all UAS reports had a ready explanation, the official Australian government UFO agency, the RAAF closed its doors on the phenomenon. UFOs might be scientifically interesting but they were no defence threat.
United Kingdom considerations:
The UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD) Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) studied UFO reports for years.
Dr David Clarke and Andy Roberts in their 2002 book titled "Out of the Shadows" documented DSTI's involvement.
In 1967, the Deputy Director of Intelligence wrote:
"In our case we have tailored our efforts to meet the minimum requirement of protecting UK airspace from any incursions which might pose a threat or a hazard." (p179.)
By 2001 DSTI ceased reviewing UFO reports made to the MOD, as it had been determined that UFOs were of no defence interest.
However, a formerly "secret" study of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) was conducted in the late 1990s by a consultant hired by the Defence Intelligence area of the MOD. The study was later released to the public. Titled "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region: Scientific and Technical Memorandum - No 55/2/00."
The terms of reference of the study as indicated in the aims was "The aim of this task is to determine the potential value, if any, of UAP sighting reports to defence intelligence."
Page 4 of the Executive Summary adds "Consistent with MOD policy, the available data has therefore been studied principally to ascertain whether there is any evidence of a threat to the UK."
Page 6 of the same summary stated:
"Based on all the available evidence remaining in the Department (reported over the last 30 years), the information studied, either separately or corporately contained in UAP reports, leads to the conclusion that it does not have any significant Defence Intelligence value. However, the study has uncovered a number of technological issues that may be of potential defence interest..."
"No evidence exists to associate the phenomenon with any particular nation."
"No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomenon seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces."
Key supporting findings included:
"Aerial phenomena of the type consistent with those reported as UAP, and with exceptional characteristics, certainly exist - but the available evidence suggests, that apart from those which can be more easily and satisfactorily explained, they are comprised of several types of rarely encountered natural events within the atmosphere and ionosphere. Some of them are still barely understood."
My summary of the UK's Defence Intelligence area's thoughts, is that UFOs certainly exist. Some are scientifically interesting, but there are no significant defence threats.
New Zealand considerations:
File 244/10/1 of the New Zealand Defence Force, recently released by the New Zealand government has a memo on it dated 4 November 1976 from Secretary for Transport to Secretary of Defence (Ref Def66/20/1 DDI.) Included is the statement:
"I agree that there seems to be no need to have a committee to investigate reported sightings of UFOs...As we have no interest other than to ensure...eliminate the possibility of an unknown intruder..."
This memo was a response to the Defence Intelligence area of the NZ Defence Force's query as to whether or not the NZ "Unidentified Flying Object Investigation Committee" should continue. The DDI chaired this committee.
Also on file 244/10/1 the official New Zealand government position on UFOs was stated in a memo dated 5 October 1976 from the Secretary of Defence." All I can say is that empirical evidence shows conclusively that there are no defence factors involved with UFO sightings."
An earlier memo, dated 8 August 1972 from the Minister of Defence stated:
"...the overall subject does appear to be primarily a matter of scientific interest than defence..."
In short, UFOs are scientifically of interest, but no defence threat to New Zealand.
Comments:
Dear readers, do you see a pattern here? Australian, New Zealand and the United Kingdom's Defence Intelligence areas have studied UFO reports for years. They state in summary that some UFOs are not explainable in conventional terms; that they are scientifically interesting but are of no defence threat.
There would seem to be value for researchers to take a look at the conclusions of other global governments to see what their take on the UFO phenomenon has been.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Cold case - Port Augusta - 5 February 1947
Introduction:
As you will know from reading this blog, one of my current research projects is looking at old Australian cases. In this post I investigate an event which occurred in 1947 in my home state, several months before the Kenneth Arnold sighting.
I had known about this event for several years, ever since an Adelaide contact, Darryl Tiggeman, supplied me with details. I visited the State Library in Adelaide and confirmed that the following accounts did appear in the papers of the time.
Newspaper accounts:
(1) "Strange objects reported in sky"
Port Augusta 6 February.
"While working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways workshop yesterday morning Mr Ron Ellis and two workmates claim to have seen five strange objects in formation pass across the sky from north to south.
"The objects were white or light pink and shaped like an egg. Mr Ellis said that he could not give an accurate estimate of the size of the objects, but they were casting shadows and judging by his experience with aircraft in the RAAF during the war he considered they were about the size of a locomotive.
"Although the objects kept on a direct course at a height of about 6,000 feet they appeared to be quivering he said. Owing to their great speed they were out of sight within a few seconds.
"Any question of the phenomenon being an optical illusion was dispelled by the fact that a few minutes later both Mr Ellis and his companion gave an identical description of what they had seen. Their description was verified by another member of the workshop who said he had also seen the objects."
Source: "Adelaide Advertiser" newspaper. Friday 7 February 1947, front page. Viewed in the State Library, Adelaide on 27 January 2011.
(2) "Objects in sky not meteorites."
"Commenting yesterday on a report from Port Augusta that several men working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways workshop at about 9am on Wednesday had seen five strange egg shaped objects in formation pass across the sky at a height of about 6,000 feet the Government astronomer (Mr G F Dodwell) said that the phenomenon did not fit in with anything astronomical and was a complete mystery to him.
"Mr Dodwell discounted the probability of the objects being meteorites. He said that meteorites being so small and travelling at such high speeds did not cast shadows whereas the report stated that the objects had cast shadows about the size of a locomotive. The presence of falling meteorites would have been accompanied by a deafening roar."
Source: "Adelaide Advertiser" newspaper. Saturday 8 February 1947, front page. Viewed in the State Library, Adelaide on 27 January 2011.
Research:
1. I visited the State Library, Adelaide and confirmed that the above accounts had appeared in the respective newspapers. They had.
2. I then searched for additional information about the event. I checked other newspapers. The "Adelaide Advertiser" between 1 and 19 February; the "West Coast Sentinel" (based at Streaky Bay 320km W of Port Augusta) between 5 and 19 February; "The Recorder" (based at Port Pirie 80kms S of Port Augusta) between 7 and 14 February; Adelaide's other daily newspaper "The News" between 5 and 11 February; the Adelaide weekly "The Mail" for 8 February; and "The Quorn Mercury" (based at Quorn 22kms NE of Port Augusta) between 6 and 20 February.
3. I found that "The Quorn Mercury" of 13 February 1947, page 3, carried the exact same story as the 8 February 1947 "Adelaide Advertiser" quoted above. Interestingly, "The Quorn Mercury" of 20 February 1947, page 3, also carried an additional sighting.
"Writing in the Advertiser, Mr F W Flavel of Lock, Eyre Peninsula states: "I saw objects in the sky between 7 and 8 o'clock the same day as you record a report from Port Augusta. I was walking in a north-westerly direction to the house after feeding the pigs.
"There were five of the strange objects and they seemed to be coming up out of the sea like a shadow with smoky greyish color around them. They were oblong with narrow points. I saw them quite plainly. They seemed to be floating in the air from north-west to south-east and caused a shadow."
4. I then checked the "Adelaide Advertiser" and found a letter to the editor in the 17 February 1947 edition, page 2.
"Strange objects in the sky."
"I saw objects in the sky between 7 and 8 o'clock the same day as you record a report from Port Augusta. I was walking in a north-westerly direction to the house after feeding the pigs.
"There were five of the strange objects and they seemed to be coming up out of the sea like a shadow with smoky greyish color around them. They were oblong with narrow points. I saw them quite plainly. They seemed to be floating in the air from north-west to south-east and caused a shadow."
"I called the wife to have a look at them and she did so. It was a sight. I wish I had watched them longer as others had seen them and Port Augusta men did so an hour later. I have never seen anything like this before, and after reading what others saw I thought I would let you know that my wife and I both saw these objects."
5. I checked the weather forecast for Wednesday 5 February 1947. The state forecast was "Unsettled, with scattered rain and thunderstorms. Cool on part of the coast, elsewhere warm to hot and sultry. SE to NE winds. " The weather chart was shaded over Port Augusta indicating that rain was expected that day.
Sunrise was at 0539hrs. Moonrise 1925hrs. Full moon was 6 December 1947.
Adelaide's actual temperature (300kms S of Port Augusta) for 5 February 1947 was minimum of 73.8 deg F at 0545hrs; maximum of 98.3 deg F at 1245hrs.
6. Lock is 225kms SW of Port Augusta and is inland, at latitude 33deg 34mins S, longitude 135deg 45mins E; whereas Port Augusta is at latitude 32deg 30mins S, 137deg 46mins E.
7. As it was mentioned that Port Augusta witness Ron Ellis had been in the RAAF, I checked for service records for such a person in the National Archives of Australia. I found there was a Ronald Ernest Ellis, born 5 November 1920 in Port August. This is most likely the same person.
I checked for records for an F W Flavel, the Lock witness' name but found nothing.
Comments:
1. The fact that there are two separate reported observations on the same morning of five strange objects in the sky which cast shadows, would indicate the observations were of the same set of objects.
2. Based on the information given, I cannot see a mundane explanation for the observations.
3. Note that this was about four months before the US based Kenneth Arnold sighting which started the "modern" UFO phenomenon.
Over to comments from readers.
As you will know from reading this blog, one of my current research projects is looking at old Australian cases. In this post I investigate an event which occurred in 1947 in my home state, several months before the Kenneth Arnold sighting.
I had known about this event for several years, ever since an Adelaide contact, Darryl Tiggeman, supplied me with details. I visited the State Library in Adelaide and confirmed that the following accounts did appear in the papers of the time.
Newspaper accounts:
(1) "Strange objects reported in sky"
Port Augusta 6 February.
"While working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways workshop yesterday morning Mr Ron Ellis and two workmates claim to have seen five strange objects in formation pass across the sky from north to south.
"The objects were white or light pink and shaped like an egg. Mr Ellis said that he could not give an accurate estimate of the size of the objects, but they were casting shadows and judging by his experience with aircraft in the RAAF during the war he considered they were about the size of a locomotive.
"Although the objects kept on a direct course at a height of about 6,000 feet they appeared to be quivering he said. Owing to their great speed they were out of sight within a few seconds.
"Any question of the phenomenon being an optical illusion was dispelled by the fact that a few minutes later both Mr Ellis and his companion gave an identical description of what they had seen. Their description was verified by another member of the workshop who said he had also seen the objects."
Source: "Adelaide Advertiser" newspaper. Friday 7 February 1947, front page. Viewed in the State Library, Adelaide on 27 January 2011.
(2) "Objects in sky not meteorites."
"Commenting yesterday on a report from Port Augusta that several men working in the yard at the Commonwealth Railways workshop at about 9am on Wednesday had seen five strange egg shaped objects in formation pass across the sky at a height of about 6,000 feet the Government astronomer (Mr G F Dodwell) said that the phenomenon did not fit in with anything astronomical and was a complete mystery to him.
"Mr Dodwell discounted the probability of the objects being meteorites. He said that meteorites being so small and travelling at such high speeds did not cast shadows whereas the report stated that the objects had cast shadows about the size of a locomotive. The presence of falling meteorites would have been accompanied by a deafening roar."
Source: "Adelaide Advertiser" newspaper. Saturday 8 February 1947, front page. Viewed in the State Library, Adelaide on 27 January 2011.
Research:
1. I visited the State Library, Adelaide and confirmed that the above accounts had appeared in the respective newspapers. They had.
2. I then searched for additional information about the event. I checked other newspapers. The "Adelaide Advertiser" between 1 and 19 February; the "West Coast Sentinel" (based at Streaky Bay 320km W of Port Augusta) between 5 and 19 February; "The Recorder" (based at Port Pirie 80kms S of Port Augusta) between 7 and 14 February; Adelaide's other daily newspaper "The News" between 5 and 11 February; the Adelaide weekly "The Mail" for 8 February; and "The Quorn Mercury" (based at Quorn 22kms NE of Port Augusta) between 6 and 20 February.
3. I found that "The Quorn Mercury" of 13 February 1947, page 3, carried the exact same story as the 8 February 1947 "Adelaide Advertiser" quoted above. Interestingly, "The Quorn Mercury" of 20 February 1947, page 3, also carried an additional sighting.
"Writing in the Advertiser, Mr F W Flavel of Lock, Eyre Peninsula states: "I saw objects in the sky between 7 and 8 o'clock the same day as you record a report from Port Augusta. I was walking in a north-westerly direction to the house after feeding the pigs.
"There were five of the strange objects and they seemed to be coming up out of the sea like a shadow with smoky greyish color around them. They were oblong with narrow points. I saw them quite plainly. They seemed to be floating in the air from north-west to south-east and caused a shadow."
4. I then checked the "Adelaide Advertiser" and found a letter to the editor in the 17 February 1947 edition, page 2.
"Strange objects in the sky."
"I saw objects in the sky between 7 and 8 o'clock the same day as you record a report from Port Augusta. I was walking in a north-westerly direction to the house after feeding the pigs.
"There were five of the strange objects and they seemed to be coming up out of the sea like a shadow with smoky greyish color around them. They were oblong with narrow points. I saw them quite plainly. They seemed to be floating in the air from north-west to south-east and caused a shadow."
"I called the wife to have a look at them and she did so. It was a sight. I wish I had watched them longer as others had seen them and Port Augusta men did so an hour later. I have never seen anything like this before, and after reading what others saw I thought I would let you know that my wife and I both saw these objects."
5. I checked the weather forecast for Wednesday 5 February 1947. The state forecast was "Unsettled, with scattered rain and thunderstorms. Cool on part of the coast, elsewhere warm to hot and sultry. SE to NE winds. " The weather chart was shaded over Port Augusta indicating that rain was expected that day.
Sunrise was at 0539hrs. Moonrise 1925hrs. Full moon was 6 December 1947.
Adelaide's actual temperature (300kms S of Port Augusta) for 5 February 1947 was minimum of 73.8 deg F at 0545hrs; maximum of 98.3 deg F at 1245hrs.
6. Lock is 225kms SW of Port Augusta and is inland, at latitude 33deg 34mins S, longitude 135deg 45mins E; whereas Port Augusta is at latitude 32deg 30mins S, 137deg 46mins E.
7. As it was mentioned that Port Augusta witness Ron Ellis had been in the RAAF, I checked for service records for such a person in the National Archives of Australia. I found there was a Ronald Ernest Ellis, born 5 November 1920 in Port August. This is most likely the same person.
I checked for records for an F W Flavel, the Lock witness' name but found nothing.
Comments:
1. The fact that there are two separate reported observations on the same morning of five strange objects in the sky which cast shadows, would indicate the observations were of the same set of objects.
2. Based on the information given, I cannot see a mundane explanation for the observations.
3. Note that this was about four months before the US based Kenneth Arnold sighting which started the "modern" UFO phenomenon.
Over to comments from readers.
Monday, January 24, 2011
New book alert - Kean
Dear readers
I'm still on holidays at the moment. I'm sitting outside on a predicted 28 degree C maximum day; with a glass of "Moscato" white wine from Banrock Station; a box of "Mint Thins" peppermint chocolates and Leslie Kean's new book, "UFOs." I think I'm in heaven!
The book is "UFOs:Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record," published by Harmony Books. New York. 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-71684-2. (See website here.)
The author:
Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist, widely published in a variety of mainstream media publications, and co-founder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (click here for more information)
The foreword:
John Podesta (more info click here)
has been "...counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the White House under President Clinton, and now with the Center for American progress, to the fundamental principle of protecting openness in government..." he writes:
"The time to pull the curtain back on this subject is long overdue...about a fascinating phenomenon, the nature of which is yet to be determined...it is definitely time for governments, scientists, and aviation experts to work together in unravelling the questions about UFOs..."
Kean's interest commences:
In the year 2000, Kean was working for a Californian public radio station when she obtained a copy of the French COMETA report (click here.)
This was a report authored by a group of "...retired generals, scientists and space experts...explained that about 5 percent of sightings...cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources...This 5 percent seem to be "completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence." (p.1.)
Kean's interest started after reading this report and "I kept wondering, could there really be technological objects flying around that are not man-made?...As I dug deeper I learned that these objects had appeared for decades..." (p.3.)
Kean's response was "Secretly, I started to look into the UFO subject more extensively...The UFO story was journalistically elusive, contaminated by conspiracy theories, disinformation and just plain sloppiness...The aggregate data, the accumulation of evidence over decades, was utterly compelling and completely mystifying...UFOs became the focus of my professional life..." (pp3-4.)
"I naively thought this would have to generate some kind of news buzz...Amazingly, nothing happened...It was as if everyone was pretending that they didn't exist..." (p.5.)
Despite this, Kean continued her interest, learning more and interviewing some of the key players in the field. Interestingly, "The most credible sources clearly recognised, and stated repeatedly, that we don't yet know what the objects are-contrary to public assumption that UFOs, by definition, are extraterrestrial spaceships." (p.6.)
"I now believe that the only way to adequately convey the full story-to really break the news about the existence of UFOs and convey the impact of the material for the person so far unexposed to it-is through a book such as this one..." (p.6.)
"Our government still stays out of the UFO controversy and has no policy in place to address growing concerns..." (p.9.)
Kean then puts forward five "premises" for the reader to consider as they read the rest of the book:
"1)There exists in our skies, worldwide, a solid, physical phenomenon that appears to be under intelligent control and is capable of speeds, maneuverability and luminosity beyond current known technology.
(2) UFO incursions, often in restricted airspace, can cause aviation safety hazards and raise national security concerns, even though the objects have not demonstrated overtly hostile acts.
(3) The U.S. Government routinely ignores UFOs and, when pressed, issue false explanations. Its indifference and/or dismissals are irresponsible, disrespectful to credible, often expert witnesses, and potentially dangerous.
(4) The hypothesis that UFOs are of extraterrestrial or interdimensional origin is a rational one, and must be taken into account, given the data we have. However, the actual origin and nature of UFOs have not yet been determined by scientists and remain unknown.
(5) Given its potential implications, the evidence calls for systematic scientific investigation involving US government support and international cooperation." (pp13-14.)
Part one:
Most of the book is taken up by contributions by a range of individuals, e.g. chapter two relates the wave over Belgium,written by Major general Wilfried De Brouwer (retired); "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Aviation Safety" by Richard F Haines; the 18/19 September 1976, Iranian aircraft encounter by one of the pilots involved, General Parviz Jafari (retd.); Peruvian Air Force pilot Commandante Oscar Santa Maria Huertas (retd.) on his 11 April 1980 encounter, and so on.
Part two:
Part two opens with Kean's analysis of the period 1947-1969 in an American context; and a look at what other countries have undertaken in terms of research. "Since 2004, the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Mexico, Russia, Uruguay, Peru, Ireland, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have release once secret files and in 2009 even Denmark and Sweden joined the trend..." (p.117.)
However, Kean notes that despite this, "...government documents no longer reveal anything new and the thousands and thousands of pages have not lead to a major breakthrough in understanding. The most sensitive files-the intelligence reports that are concerned with more serious national security implications and likely deeper investigations and analysis-will not be disclosed and released." (p.118.)
The next portion of the book looks at what processes other world governments have taken and what they have learned.
Chapter 13 by Major General Denis Letty (retd.) reveals the background to the COMETA report and Jean-Jacques Velasco speaks to the French studies, in chapter 14.
Kean then discusses UFOs and the National Security Problem. This is spoken by a chapter by Nick Pope, who worked for the UK Ministry of Defence; a review of the UK Rendelsham Forest affair by Seargent James Penniston (Rtd.) and Colonel Charles I Halt (Retd.); while General Ricardo Bermudez Sanhueza (Retd.) reviews the Chilean response and Brigadier General Jose Carlos Pereira (Retd.) covers that of Brazil's response.
Part three:
"Even after many decades of focused research in France, explanation of defense implications in the UK, and field investigations in the Brazilian Amazon...we still don't know what the objects actually are..." (p.209.)
After interviewing a range of high-level individuals, Kean looks to move the debate on and suggest three points "...that further scientific investigation is mandated, partly because of the impact of UFOs on aircraft and aviation safety...that this investigation must be an international cooperative venture involving many governments and transcending politics...that such a global effort cannot be effective without the participation of the United States, the world's greatest technological power." (pp210-211.)
Kean's key point is "Logically, the first step in moving toward a solution is the establishment of an office or small agency within the US government to handle appropriate UFO investigations, liaison with other countries, and demonstrate to the scientific community that this is indeed a subject worthy of study." (p.211.)
Later chapters discuss "Government cover-up:Policy or myth?"; "Governor Fife Symington and Movement Towards Change"; Kean's own efforts with the Coalition for Freedom of Information.
The final chapter, "Facing an Extreme Challenge" reviews possible reasons why politicians and scientists look to avoid the subject of UFOs.
Kean's hope is that "With the launching of a new U.S. Government agency and the liberation of new resources, science could take its rightful place in the study of UFOs by claiming the subject as its own and beginning a new inquiry." (p288.)
Comments:
This is a very powerful book, especially the thought provoking first hand accounts by those who have experienced the phenomenon. It provides a slice of the available evidence (staying clear of the quagmire of the abduction phenomenon)which is available through numerous previous studies, the files released by various governments and those held by private UFO research groups.
The call for action is commendable, and her suggestion for the formation of a new US based office or agency to move the subject forward is excellent.
It certainly reminded me that UFOs do exist; that we still don't know what they are; that Defence Intelligence areas of various governments have concluded there is no defence significance; and that further research is indeed warranted.
Buy several copies of this book.One to keep and the others to be shared with people you know who don't think the subject is worthy of attention.
I'm still on holidays at the moment. I'm sitting outside on a predicted 28 degree C maximum day; with a glass of "Moscato" white wine from Banrock Station; a box of "Mint Thins" peppermint chocolates and Leslie Kean's new book, "UFOs." I think I'm in heaven!
The book is "UFOs:Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record," published by Harmony Books. New York. 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-71684-2. (See website here.)
The author:
Leslie Kean is an investigative journalist, widely published in a variety of mainstream media publications, and co-founder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information (click here for more information)
The foreword:
John Podesta (more info click here)
has been "...counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the White House under President Clinton, and now with the Center for American progress, to the fundamental principle of protecting openness in government..." he writes:
"The time to pull the curtain back on this subject is long overdue...about a fascinating phenomenon, the nature of which is yet to be determined...it is definitely time for governments, scientists, and aviation experts to work together in unravelling the questions about UFOs..."
Kean's interest commences:
In the year 2000, Kean was working for a Californian public radio station when she obtained a copy of the French COMETA report (click here.)
This was a report authored by a group of "...retired generals, scientists and space experts...explained that about 5 percent of sightings...cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources...This 5 percent seem to be "completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence." (p.1.)
Kean's interest started after reading this report and "I kept wondering, could there really be technological objects flying around that are not man-made?...As I dug deeper I learned that these objects had appeared for decades..." (p.3.)
Kean's response was "Secretly, I started to look into the UFO subject more extensively...The UFO story was journalistically elusive, contaminated by conspiracy theories, disinformation and just plain sloppiness...The aggregate data, the accumulation of evidence over decades, was utterly compelling and completely mystifying...UFOs became the focus of my professional life..." (pp3-4.)
"I naively thought this would have to generate some kind of news buzz...Amazingly, nothing happened...It was as if everyone was pretending that they didn't exist..." (p.5.)
Despite this, Kean continued her interest, learning more and interviewing some of the key players in the field. Interestingly, "The most credible sources clearly recognised, and stated repeatedly, that we don't yet know what the objects are-contrary to public assumption that UFOs, by definition, are extraterrestrial spaceships." (p.6.)
"I now believe that the only way to adequately convey the full story-to really break the news about the existence of UFOs and convey the impact of the material for the person so far unexposed to it-is through a book such as this one..." (p.6.)
"Our government still stays out of the UFO controversy and has no policy in place to address growing concerns..." (p.9.)
Kean then puts forward five "premises" for the reader to consider as they read the rest of the book:
"1)There exists in our skies, worldwide, a solid, physical phenomenon that appears to be under intelligent control and is capable of speeds, maneuverability and luminosity beyond current known technology.
(2) UFO incursions, often in restricted airspace, can cause aviation safety hazards and raise national security concerns, even though the objects have not demonstrated overtly hostile acts.
(3) The U.S. Government routinely ignores UFOs and, when pressed, issue false explanations. Its indifference and/or dismissals are irresponsible, disrespectful to credible, often expert witnesses, and potentially dangerous.
(4) The hypothesis that UFOs are of extraterrestrial or interdimensional origin is a rational one, and must be taken into account, given the data we have. However, the actual origin and nature of UFOs have not yet been determined by scientists and remain unknown.
(5) Given its potential implications, the evidence calls for systematic scientific investigation involving US government support and international cooperation." (pp13-14.)
Part one:
Most of the book is taken up by contributions by a range of individuals, e.g. chapter two relates the wave over Belgium,written by Major general Wilfried De Brouwer (retired); "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Aviation Safety" by Richard F Haines; the 18/19 September 1976, Iranian aircraft encounter by one of the pilots involved, General Parviz Jafari (retd.); Peruvian Air Force pilot Commandante Oscar Santa Maria Huertas (retd.) on his 11 April 1980 encounter, and so on.
Part two:
Part two opens with Kean's analysis of the period 1947-1969 in an American context; and a look at what other countries have undertaken in terms of research. "Since 2004, the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Mexico, Russia, Uruguay, Peru, Ireland, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom have release once secret files and in 2009 even Denmark and Sweden joined the trend..." (p.117.)
However, Kean notes that despite this, "...government documents no longer reveal anything new and the thousands and thousands of pages have not lead to a major breakthrough in understanding. The most sensitive files-the intelligence reports that are concerned with more serious national security implications and likely deeper investigations and analysis-will not be disclosed and released." (p.118.)
The next portion of the book looks at what processes other world governments have taken and what they have learned.
Chapter 13 by Major General Denis Letty (retd.) reveals the background to the COMETA report and Jean-Jacques Velasco speaks to the French studies, in chapter 14.
Kean then discusses UFOs and the National Security Problem. This is spoken by a chapter by Nick Pope, who worked for the UK Ministry of Defence; a review of the UK Rendelsham Forest affair by Seargent James Penniston (Rtd.) and Colonel Charles I Halt (Retd.); while General Ricardo Bermudez Sanhueza (Retd.) reviews the Chilean response and Brigadier General Jose Carlos Pereira (Retd.) covers that of Brazil's response.
Part three:
"Even after many decades of focused research in France, explanation of defense implications in the UK, and field investigations in the Brazilian Amazon...we still don't know what the objects actually are..." (p.209.)
After interviewing a range of high-level individuals, Kean looks to move the debate on and suggest three points "...that further scientific investigation is mandated, partly because of the impact of UFOs on aircraft and aviation safety...that this investigation must be an international cooperative venture involving many governments and transcending politics...that such a global effort cannot be effective without the participation of the United States, the world's greatest technological power." (pp210-211.)
Kean's key point is "Logically, the first step in moving toward a solution is the establishment of an office or small agency within the US government to handle appropriate UFO investigations, liaison with other countries, and demonstrate to the scientific community that this is indeed a subject worthy of study." (p.211.)
Later chapters discuss "Government cover-up:Policy or myth?"; "Governor Fife Symington and Movement Towards Change"; Kean's own efforts with the Coalition for Freedom of Information.
The final chapter, "Facing an Extreme Challenge" reviews possible reasons why politicians and scientists look to avoid the subject of UFOs.
Kean's hope is that "With the launching of a new U.S. Government agency and the liberation of new resources, science could take its rightful place in the study of UFOs by claiming the subject as its own and beginning a new inquiry." (p288.)
Comments:
This is a very powerful book, especially the thought provoking first hand accounts by those who have experienced the phenomenon. It provides a slice of the available evidence (staying clear of the quagmire of the abduction phenomenon)which is available through numerous previous studies, the files released by various governments and those held by private UFO research groups.
The call for action is commendable, and her suggestion for the formation of a new US based office or agency to move the subject forward is excellent.
It certainly reminded me that UFOs do exist; that we still don't know what they are; that Defence Intelligence areas of various governments have concluded there is no defence significance; and that further research is indeed warranted.
Buy several copies of this book.One to keep and the others to be shared with people you know who don't think the subject is worthy of attention.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Valerie Ransone - a 1970's contactee
Hi
Introduction:
One of my current research projects is looking at contactee/abductee accounts (the other is researching Australian UFO "cold cases.") When I read in a recent post by Pauline on this blog, that in May 1978 Dr Christopher (Kit) Green was visiting Houston "...where Valerie Ransone and a group of contactees have promised he would witness materializations..." I became intrigued and decided to undertake a little research on Valerie Ransone.
Why would I be interested in a 1970's contactee case?
(1) It was many years ahead of the Internet which clouded the issue with an overload of material.
(2) Unlike many other contactee cases, it involved some high profile people, e.g. US astronaut Gordon Cooper.
(3) The contactee herself was said to be high profile, although until I conducted this research I can't say that I had heard of her.
The Hawaii-Five-O connection:
I initially found a reference to Ransone in 1976. The located document stated that it was from the Hong Kong TV Times (18-24 June 1976.) The piece (found at http://www.jmdigitalscrapbook.com/HKTVTimes/HKTVTimes.shtml.)
included:
"The day began with breakfast, early for the locals but late for the visitors, at the Furama with Chun Kam Fong, Five-O's super sleauth, Chin Ho, who is as celebrated here as MacArthur.
"Other members of the party included MacArthur's friend, the lovely Valerie Ransone, former CBS correspondent and Washington power broker, who was putting together the Far Eastern Links in a new alternative radio service, The Information Network, of which she is President, principal shareholder, chief correspondent and board chairman. It also included the Dutch photographer Hugh Van Es ( see piece in New York Times KB) who speaks American English with the tones of a Five-O villain...It had been noticed that during the run from the jewellers, Valerie was limping. Unlikely as it sounds for such a beautiful and healthy young lady, she seemed to be suffering from the gout."
The MacArthur in the piece was James MacArthur, the actor in Hawaii-Five-O, a police drama set in Hawaii.
Enter Jacques Vallee:
I next picked up the story in Jacques Vallee's book "Forbidden Science Volume Two" where I located six diary entries between 19 May and 14 October 1978.
19 May 1978
"Upon my return from Los Angeles I met with Ira Einhorn at his hotel. We spent several hours discussing Bob Beck, Puharich and Valerie Ransone, a contactee who has worked in Washington for Nixon's WIN (anti-inflation) campaign. She is active in high-level circles, organising trips to the desert in hopes of watching UFOs.
" Confirming what I'd heard from Kit, Ira told me that Valerie and Puharich had gone over to see Beck in March or April 1977. Beck claims he can take his ELF generator to a coffee shop, turn on the device and cause every child in the place to start crying; conversely he'll tune it to a frequency that includes euphoria...
"Some German executives are said to have a device that shields a person against such waves. In a letter to Ira, Beck writes that 'competent authorities' have asked him not to reveal the frequency in question."
My notes:
(1) Ira Einhorn according to Vallee was a "radical thinker...a youth leader turned management guru whose destiny would include an ugly accusation for murder..." (p.9.)
(2) Dr Andrija Puharich was a "New Age researcher." (p.164.) (See his son's website.)
(3) Bob Beck "researches brain wave entraining..." (p.426.)
11 June 1978
"Valerie Ransone is setting up a company to disseminate messages she believes to be of extraterrestrial origin. Since networks are now at the cutting edge of information sciences, she's also building up a Center for Advanced Technology that plans to use conferencing. The whole thing is reportedly financed by Security Around the Globe, an industrial protection and private detective firm.
"Valerie is an attractive 28-year old woman with a brilliant mind. She's being helped by high-powered executives, captains of industry, impeccable business leaders she calls her "silver foxes." One of them arranged for her to meet the director of the Scripps Institute and Gordon Cooper, who's made curious statements lately about witnessing the retrieval of crashed saucers. She's also in touch with a fellow who owns a lot of real estate in San Francisco,
"Journalist West Thomas who heads up Valerie's computing center, has called from her office to enlist my help. Valerie got on the line to assure me of the seriousness of her project. I declined to become involved, bothered by all their pseudo-science."
9 July 1978
"Wes Thomas was waiting for me at Kennedy. He spoke about Valerie. He';s known her for several years, having met her when she was the public relations person for an energy information group. Her family came from the Chicago area and she studied journalism at Northwestern. Wes introduced her to Puharich two years ago. She spent several months with him, exploring every site where ELF research was going on. This particular topic of extremely low frequency seemed to fascinate her. "I think Puharich convinced her that she was a contactee," said Wes. "I'd never heard her mention it before she met him.""
12 July 1978
Kit was waiting for me at Dulles, driving a Volvo full of kids, so we were not able to talk seriously until after dinner. Once we were alone I brought up my concerns. "It's obvious there's a secret project somewhere," I insisted. "Take a case like Tehran...someone must be working on it, even if you guys don't. Also, I've been thinking about our discussion with Jim Irish. He evaded all our questions about the death of his colleagues on Mount Baldy, didn't he?
'You may be right," Kit finally said, "about a secret project."
"What about Security Around the Globe? Where does Valerie come into all this?"
"SAG is owned by a lady and her two sons. They've had a private detective agency in Nevada for 15 years. She has lots of contacts."
6 August 1978
"On Friday I set up a computer conference with Valerie Ransone in Houston, Wes Thomas on Long Island and Brendan O'Regan in San Fancisco. It took a curious turn when Valerie announced that her purpose was to select 13 individuals who would be invited to her "Signs of the Spirit" conference in Washington next December. She said "My goal is to establish a foundation for those who will meet space people in December." I reminded her that two years ago Puharich had already predicted massive landings "within 18 months." Later on he revealed that "The Direction" had decided to land invisibly! Always the same absurd stories."
14 October 1978
"The Valerie Ransone saga continued. The woman who owns Security Around the Globe"" became intrigued and upset when she saw the folders Valerie brought to her for safekeeping, like "Soviet Research" and "Military intelligence." So she called the Houston office of the FBI, who went through the papers. They initiated an investigation that reached into every corner of Washington.
"Among the papers in question was a letter claiming that Earth was now under control of the aliens...On Wednesday evening I had a cup of coffee with Valerie at the Capitol Hilton. She was with Jill Duvall, a level-headed woman. They've opened an office in Washington, and their "Information network" is now registered as a Californian company thanks to money invested by a friend of hers in California. Valerie told me the Aliens didn't want me to call my next book "Messengers of Deception." I answered, "Let's see how they will stop me."
Enter Gordon Cooper:
Vallee's reference to astronaut Gordon Cooper brought up two internet pieces. The first I found on James Oberg's website.
"There could be trouble with the space shuttle."
It was December 1978.
"What kind of trouble? I asked her [Valerie Ransone] over the phone. Valerie was at her office in Washington. I was at mine in California.
"Technical flaws," she said. "Something to do with the heating or cooling system. It's pretty sketchy."
"The warning had come during one of her 'transmissions.' She had no idea when they would arrive--the telepathic messages she believed were from extraterrestrial source of intelligence...She made a point always to document the details as soon as possible, usually typing up the complete messages.
"Four months after mentioning the vague possibility of a problem with the space shuttle, Valerie was in Los Angeles and came to my office. She was worried about new and more detailed information she had received. She showed me a single typewritten page of notes she'd made after receiving the transmission...The source of information professed to being concerned that the future of manned space travel not be jeopardised by such events.
" I'd been around Valerie long enough to find her knowledgeable and trustworthy, and I wasn't about to discount her transmissions. In addition her telepathic powers had been proved time and time again...I felt certain she was getting good information from somewhere: from where and whom I couldn't say for sure...I flew to Houston to see Bennett "Ben" James, and experienced engineer and supervisor in NASA's Flight Operations...I now told him it was possible that my business partner was in contact with "higher powers somewhere who may have better information than we do..." NASA engineers immediately went to work examining the space shuttle's cooling system,. looking at the detailed scenarios I laid out for them. They quickly identified and within days, fixed the potential problem with the cooling system-just as outlined in the transmissions I carried in my briefcase...Was I surprised that the cooling system fault existed? Not really. With Valerie Ransone, I had moved beyond surprise. But the experience gave me another shot of confidence that the source we were getting technological assistance from was for real."
The second reference was on the website for Bruce Henderson, who, on the cover of "Leap of Faith" is shown as co-author.
" In the late 1970's, Cooper unsuccessfully tried to launch a research company devoted to free worldwide energy transmissions using Nikola Tesla's discoveries, as well as advanced medical devices and other projects. His partner in this venture Valeries Ransone, claims top receive scientifically useful telepathic transmissions from extraterrestrial sources.
"The story gets weirder, as Cooper agrees to joining Ransone in the Arizona desert for a telepathically arranged rendezvous with a UFO. Joining them at this alleged meeting (which was cancelled) was Atlas missile aerospace engineer Dan Fry, who claims to have flown over Texas on board a UFO in 1950..."
My comments:
Are we any further along in understanding the Vallee quote about Kit green going to Houston to witness materializations? Henderson's quote re cooper agreeing to meet Valerie Ransone "in the Arizona desert for a telepathically arranged rendezvous with a UFO" might be a clue. Are the "materializations" referring to a "UFO materializing?"
Alternative views:
As with any area of knowledge there are alternative viewpoints and I came across a suggestion that "Were the "higher powers" mentioned by astronaut Gordon Cooper spies, feeding him information in a counter-intelligence scheme..." (See the website here.)
Before dismissing this suggestion out of hand, take a look at Nick Refern's book "Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction," referred in a post by Pauline on this blog on 25 April 2010.
Information timeline:
From the information gained we are able to compile the following information:
1950 Valeries Ransone born in the Chicago area.
? Studied journalism at Northwestern.
? PR person for an energy information group.
1976 Introduced to Dr Puharich by Wes Thomas.
1976 Spent several months with Puharich exploring ELF research.
June 1976 In Hong Kong with James MacArthur.
Mar/Apr 1977 Ransone and Puharich meet with Bob Beck.
1978 Interactions with Vallee.
Dec 1978 Warning Gordon Cooper about shuttle problems.
Late 1970's Business partner with Cooper.
Appeal:
Has any reader come across any other information about Ransone? If so, please share.
The library system in my home state has one copy in its catalogue of "Leap of Faith," however, when I enquired about access I was informed the only copy was lost. If any reader has a copy, is the material from the book, accurately quoted above?
2016 update
http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/valerie-ransone-some-further-insights.html
Introduction:
One of my current research projects is looking at contactee/abductee accounts (the other is researching Australian UFO "cold cases.") When I read in a recent post by Pauline on this blog, that in May 1978 Dr Christopher (Kit) Green was visiting Houston "...where Valerie Ransone and a group of contactees have promised he would witness materializations..." I became intrigued and decided to undertake a little research on Valerie Ransone.
Why would I be interested in a 1970's contactee case?
(1) It was many years ahead of the Internet which clouded the issue with an overload of material.
(2) Unlike many other contactee cases, it involved some high profile people, e.g. US astronaut Gordon Cooper.
(3) The contactee herself was said to be high profile, although until I conducted this research I can't say that I had heard of her.
The Hawaii-Five-O connection:
I initially found a reference to Ransone in 1976. The located document stated that it was from the Hong Kong TV Times (18-24 June 1976.) The piece (found at http://www.jmdigitalscrapbook.com/HKTVTimes/HKTVTimes.shtml.)
included:
"The day began with breakfast, early for the locals but late for the visitors, at the Furama with Chun Kam Fong, Five-O's super sleauth, Chin Ho, who is as celebrated here as MacArthur.
"Other members of the party included MacArthur's friend, the lovely Valerie Ransone, former CBS correspondent and Washington power broker, who was putting together the Far Eastern Links in a new alternative radio service, The Information Network, of which she is President, principal shareholder, chief correspondent and board chairman. It also included the Dutch photographer Hugh Van Es ( see piece in New York Times KB) who speaks American English with the tones of a Five-O villain...It had been noticed that during the run from the jewellers, Valerie was limping. Unlikely as it sounds for such a beautiful and healthy young lady, she seemed to be suffering from the gout."
The MacArthur in the piece was James MacArthur, the actor in Hawaii-Five-O, a police drama set in Hawaii.
Enter Jacques Vallee:
I next picked up the story in Jacques Vallee's book "Forbidden Science Volume Two" where I located six diary entries between 19 May and 14 October 1978.
19 May 1978
"Upon my return from Los Angeles I met with Ira Einhorn at his hotel. We spent several hours discussing Bob Beck, Puharich and Valerie Ransone, a contactee who has worked in Washington for Nixon's WIN (anti-inflation) campaign. She is active in high-level circles, organising trips to the desert in hopes of watching UFOs.
" Confirming what I'd heard from Kit, Ira told me that Valerie and Puharich had gone over to see Beck in March or April 1977. Beck claims he can take his ELF generator to a coffee shop, turn on the device and cause every child in the place to start crying; conversely he'll tune it to a frequency that includes euphoria...
"Some German executives are said to have a device that shields a person against such waves. In a letter to Ira, Beck writes that 'competent authorities' have asked him not to reveal the frequency in question."
My notes:
(1) Ira Einhorn according to Vallee was a "radical thinker...a youth leader turned management guru whose destiny would include an ugly accusation for murder..." (p.9.)
(2) Dr Andrija Puharich was a "New Age researcher." (p.164.) (See his son's website.)
(3) Bob Beck "researches brain wave entraining..." (p.426.)
11 June 1978
"Valerie Ransone is setting up a company to disseminate messages she believes to be of extraterrestrial origin. Since networks are now at the cutting edge of information sciences, she's also building up a Center for Advanced Technology that plans to use conferencing. The whole thing is reportedly financed by Security Around the Globe, an industrial protection and private detective firm.
"Valerie is an attractive 28-year old woman with a brilliant mind. She's being helped by high-powered executives, captains of industry, impeccable business leaders she calls her "silver foxes." One of them arranged for her to meet the director of the Scripps Institute and Gordon Cooper, who's made curious statements lately about witnessing the retrieval of crashed saucers. She's also in touch with a fellow who owns a lot of real estate in San Francisco,
"Journalist West Thomas who heads up Valerie's computing center, has called from her office to enlist my help. Valerie got on the line to assure me of the seriousness of her project. I declined to become involved, bothered by all their pseudo-science."
9 July 1978
"Wes Thomas was waiting for me at Kennedy. He spoke about Valerie. He';s known her for several years, having met her when she was the public relations person for an energy information group. Her family came from the Chicago area and she studied journalism at Northwestern. Wes introduced her to Puharich two years ago. She spent several months with him, exploring every site where ELF research was going on. This particular topic of extremely low frequency seemed to fascinate her. "I think Puharich convinced her that she was a contactee," said Wes. "I'd never heard her mention it before she met him.""
12 July 1978
Kit was waiting for me at Dulles, driving a Volvo full of kids, so we were not able to talk seriously until after dinner. Once we were alone I brought up my concerns. "It's obvious there's a secret project somewhere," I insisted. "Take a case like Tehran...someone must be working on it, even if you guys don't. Also, I've been thinking about our discussion with Jim Irish. He evaded all our questions about the death of his colleagues on Mount Baldy, didn't he?
'You may be right," Kit finally said, "about a secret project."
"What about Security Around the Globe? Where does Valerie come into all this?"
"SAG is owned by a lady and her two sons. They've had a private detective agency in Nevada for 15 years. She has lots of contacts."
6 August 1978
"On Friday I set up a computer conference with Valerie Ransone in Houston, Wes Thomas on Long Island and Brendan O'Regan in San Fancisco. It took a curious turn when Valerie announced that her purpose was to select 13 individuals who would be invited to her "Signs of the Spirit" conference in Washington next December. She said "My goal is to establish a foundation for those who will meet space people in December." I reminded her that two years ago Puharich had already predicted massive landings "within 18 months." Later on he revealed that "The Direction" had decided to land invisibly! Always the same absurd stories."
14 October 1978
"The Valerie Ransone saga continued. The woman who owns Security Around the Globe"" became intrigued and upset when she saw the folders Valerie brought to her for safekeeping, like "Soviet Research" and "Military intelligence." So she called the Houston office of the FBI, who went through the papers. They initiated an investigation that reached into every corner of Washington.
"Among the papers in question was a letter claiming that Earth was now under control of the aliens...On Wednesday evening I had a cup of coffee with Valerie at the Capitol Hilton. She was with Jill Duvall, a level-headed woman. They've opened an office in Washington, and their "Information network" is now registered as a Californian company thanks to money invested by a friend of hers in California. Valerie told me the Aliens didn't want me to call my next book "Messengers of Deception." I answered, "Let's see how they will stop me."
Enter Gordon Cooper:
Vallee's reference to astronaut Gordon Cooper brought up two internet pieces. The first I found on James Oberg's website.
"There could be trouble with the space shuttle."
It was December 1978.
"What kind of trouble? I asked her [Valerie Ransone] over the phone. Valerie was at her office in Washington. I was at mine in California.
"Technical flaws," she said. "Something to do with the heating or cooling system. It's pretty sketchy."
"The warning had come during one of her 'transmissions.' She had no idea when they would arrive--the telepathic messages she believed were from extraterrestrial source of intelligence...She made a point always to document the details as soon as possible, usually typing up the complete messages.
"Four months after mentioning the vague possibility of a problem with the space shuttle, Valerie was in Los Angeles and came to my office. She was worried about new and more detailed information she had received. She showed me a single typewritten page of notes she'd made after receiving the transmission...The source of information professed to being concerned that the future of manned space travel not be jeopardised by such events.
" I'd been around Valerie long enough to find her knowledgeable and trustworthy, and I wasn't about to discount her transmissions. In addition her telepathic powers had been proved time and time again...I felt certain she was getting good information from somewhere: from where and whom I couldn't say for sure...I flew to Houston to see Bennett "Ben" James, and experienced engineer and supervisor in NASA's Flight Operations...I now told him it was possible that my business partner was in contact with "higher powers somewhere who may have better information than we do..." NASA engineers immediately went to work examining the space shuttle's cooling system,. looking at the detailed scenarios I laid out for them. They quickly identified and within days, fixed the potential problem with the cooling system-just as outlined in the transmissions I carried in my briefcase...Was I surprised that the cooling system fault existed? Not really. With Valerie Ransone, I had moved beyond surprise. But the experience gave me another shot of confidence that the source we were getting technological assistance from was for real."
The second reference was on the website for Bruce Henderson, who, on the cover of "Leap of Faith" is shown as co-author.
" In the late 1970's, Cooper unsuccessfully tried to launch a research company devoted to free worldwide energy transmissions using Nikola Tesla's discoveries, as well as advanced medical devices and other projects. His partner in this venture Valeries Ransone, claims top receive scientifically useful telepathic transmissions from extraterrestrial sources.
"The story gets weirder, as Cooper agrees to joining Ransone in the Arizona desert for a telepathically arranged rendezvous with a UFO. Joining them at this alleged meeting (which was cancelled) was Atlas missile aerospace engineer Dan Fry, who claims to have flown over Texas on board a UFO in 1950..."
My comments:
Are we any further along in understanding the Vallee quote about Kit green going to Houston to witness materializations? Henderson's quote re cooper agreeing to meet Valerie Ransone "in the Arizona desert for a telepathically arranged rendezvous with a UFO" might be a clue. Are the "materializations" referring to a "UFO materializing?"
Alternative views:
As with any area of knowledge there are alternative viewpoints and I came across a suggestion that "Were the "higher powers" mentioned by astronaut Gordon Cooper spies, feeding him information in a counter-intelligence scheme..." (See the website here.)
Before dismissing this suggestion out of hand, take a look at Nick Refern's book "Contactees: A History of Alien-Human Interaction," referred in a post by Pauline on this blog on 25 April 2010.
Information timeline:
From the information gained we are able to compile the following information:
1950 Valeries Ransone born in the Chicago area.
? Studied journalism at Northwestern.
? PR person for an energy information group.
1976 Introduced to Dr Puharich by Wes Thomas.
1976 Spent several months with Puharich exploring ELF research.
June 1976 In Hong Kong with James MacArthur.
Mar/Apr 1977 Ransone and Puharich meet with Bob Beck.
1978 Interactions with Vallee.
Dec 1978 Warning Gordon Cooper about shuttle problems.
Late 1970's Business partner with Cooper.
Appeal:
Has any reader come across any other information about Ransone? If so, please share.
The library system in my home state has one copy in its catalogue of "Leap of Faith," however, when I enquired about access I was informed the only copy was lost. If any reader has a copy, is the material from the book, accurately quoted above?
2016 update
http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/valerie-ransone-some-further-insights.html
Sunday, January 16, 2011
New book alert - "Authors of the Impossible"
Dear readers
The floods which have devastated parts of Queensland, Northern New South Wales and Victoria have also affected the south-east of my own state. After so many years of drought in parts of Australia, it is ironic to now be having floods. In Adelaide we have no problems with excess water. Turning to today's post.
Authors of the Impossible:
I am finally getting to the bottom of the pile of books by my bed. Today's post is about the book "Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred" written by Jeffrey J Kripal (click here for Amazon details.) It was published in late 2010 by The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-45386-6. My copy through special orders, Dymocks books, Adelaide.
The author:
According to the cover blurb, Kripal is "the J Newton Rayzor Professor in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in the USA. He is the author of several previous books, including "Easlen: America and the religion of No Religion" and "The Serpent's Gifts: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion."
Introduction:
While researching "...esoteric currents of American popular culture, particularly as these are narrated and illustrated in the superhero comic book..." Kripal found himself "...confronting the histories of Western esotericism, animal magnetism, psychical research, science fiction and the UFO phenomenon..." (pp5-6.)
Along the way he came across the works of Frederic Myers; Charles Fort; Jacques Vallee and Bertrand Meheust. However, he notes that "I have never once encountered another scholar mentioning,much less engaging, three of the four writers whom I came to admire so...My conclusion was a simple one. Myers, Fort, Vallee and Meheust are not part of the scholarly canon that has come to define what is possible to be reasonably thought and comparatively imagined in the professional study of religion." (pp6-7.) Kripal's new book sets out to remedy this situation.
Definitions:
Kripal defines the psychical "...as the sacred in transit from a traditional religious register into a modern scientific one." The paranormal as "...the sacred in transit from the religious and scientific registers, into a parascientific or "science mysticism" register." (p.9.)
The sacred is "...a particular structure of human consciousness that corresponds to a palpable presence, energy or power encountered in the environment." (p.9.)
Kripal then notes "Unlike the sacred, neither the psychical nor the paranormal has survived in any active form within the professional study of religion." (p.9.)
Four books:
The major part of this work is a series of four "books", namely:
* The Book as seance: Frederick Myers and the London Society for Psychical Research
* Scattering the seeds of a super-story: Charles Fort and the Fantastic Narrative of Western Occulture
* The future technology of folklore: Jacques Vallee and the UFO phenomenon
* Returning the human sciences to consciousness: Bertrand Meheust and the Sociology of the Impossible.
For each of the four "authors of the impossible" Kripal presents a review of their contributions to their respective subjects; then provides an analysis of their thinking.
As readers of this blog will be aware, I value highly the work of Jacques Vallee, so will use the "Book" on Vallee as an indicator of Kripal's observations on all four authors.
Vallee:
"When I first read Jacques Vallee, I knew immediately that I had found a writer who had something important to teach us about the history of Western esotericism, about the truths of traditional folklore, about the mysterious attraction of modern science fiction, and about the reality of paranormal phenomena..."(pp143-144.)
Kripal was impressed "...how he makes the impossible possible through the sophistication of his suspicions and the complex ways that his comparative investigations puts together the pieces and parts of his historical data in order to from a radically different picture-puzzle of things." (p.144.)
"He is thinking of something that is mythical and physical, spiritual and material at the same time." (p.146.)
Kripal reviews Vallee's early life, his interactions with Aime Michel; his work with Allen Hynek; and his development of the idea that UFOs cannot be studied without taking into account parallels with earlier reports of occult beings as described in "...folklore, magic, witchcraft, and religion..." (p.156.)
Vallee "...remains convinced that the UFO phenomenon will never be solved by the believers or the rationalists...he thinks that we have to reject the dogmatisms of both religion and science and confront the phenomenon on its own terms..." (p.158.)
Kripal takes us through the published works of Vallee. "Vallee's method here is quite interesting. He begins with the hypothesis that the absurd is meaningful, that the dilemma signals new thought, that we should be looking for the cracks or glitches in the stories in order to begin divining their latent messages...In my own terms, they are hermeneutical events that share in both the mythical and the physical." (p.162.)
Kripal summarises Vallee's approach as:
"What I read him reading in the history of folklore is a future technology projected, somehow back into our present...The future technology of folklore that Vallee is imagining here, in other words, is a technology that we may be using on ourselves to manipulate our own past, to control, as it were, our belief system and mythologies that lies well below the present political system or cultural fad of the day...It is precisely these religious systems that control our history for Vallee..." (pp173-174.)
In ending this "Book" on Vallee, Kripal notes "It should be patiently obvious by now that the models of reading and writing the history of religion that Jacques Vallee ascribes to are fundamentally esoteric ones..." (P.187.)
Kripal summarises what he sees as three Vallee "secrets." Firstly, the "gnosis of the future" where "Jacques Vallee thinks backwards, from the future to the present and then, like the rest of us, to the past." (p.187.)
Secondly, "the gnosis of multidimensionality...namely, the idea of multiple dimensional space-time and its implications for thinking about the history of religion..." (p.188.) "His journals, for example, are peppered with examples of tantalising precognitive dreams and remarkable synchronicities or what he calls "intersigns"..." (p.189.)
Thirdly, "the gnosis of the rosy cross," the Rosecrucian tradition which Vallee spent several years exploring, and which "...taught him the basic structure of esoteric thinking..." (p.192.)
In summarising Vallee's thinking, Kripal notes "...most of his own mystical experiences, which have involved intimations of the future, have inevitably come to him during writing..." (p.196.)
Kripal's own hypotheses:
Kripal reveals his own working hypothesis, similar to that of Meheust's. "The humanities have something important to offer the study of psychical and paranormal phenomena...By the humanities, I mean the study of consciousness encoded in culture..." (p.201.) "...psychical and paranormal phenomena have something important to offer the humanities..."P.201.)
"They provide us with some of the most suggestive evidence that consciousness and culture cannot be collapsed into one another but work together , in incredibly complex ways, to achieve different human potentials, different forms of reality, different (im)possibilities." (p.202.)
"My own intuitive sense is that paranormal phenomena are expressions of a deeper nondual reality that possesses both "mental" and "material" qualities that manifest according to the subjective or objective structure of an experience or experient." (p.257.)
Final comments:
This book is a very deep and complex work, which brought my own thinking back from specific UFO cases and theories, to a broader plane. Kripal certainly increased my understanding of where Vallee is coming from.
The book will not be for everyone, believers and sceptics take note. It is you, who should be reading this book.
The floods which have devastated parts of Queensland, Northern New South Wales and Victoria have also affected the south-east of my own state. After so many years of drought in parts of Australia, it is ironic to now be having floods. In Adelaide we have no problems with excess water. Turning to today's post.
Authors of the Impossible:
I am finally getting to the bottom of the pile of books by my bed. Today's post is about the book "Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred" written by Jeffrey J Kripal (click here for Amazon details.) It was published in late 2010 by The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-45386-6. My copy through special orders, Dymocks books, Adelaide.
The author:
According to the cover blurb, Kripal is "the J Newton Rayzor Professor in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in the USA. He is the author of several previous books, including "Easlen: America and the religion of No Religion" and "The Serpent's Gifts: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion."
Introduction:
While researching "...esoteric currents of American popular culture, particularly as these are narrated and illustrated in the superhero comic book..." Kripal found himself "...confronting the histories of Western esotericism, animal magnetism, psychical research, science fiction and the UFO phenomenon..." (pp5-6.)
Along the way he came across the works of Frederic Myers; Charles Fort; Jacques Vallee and Bertrand Meheust. However, he notes that "I have never once encountered another scholar mentioning,much less engaging, three of the four writers whom I came to admire so...My conclusion was a simple one. Myers, Fort, Vallee and Meheust are not part of the scholarly canon that has come to define what is possible to be reasonably thought and comparatively imagined in the professional study of religion." (pp6-7.) Kripal's new book sets out to remedy this situation.
Definitions:
Kripal defines the psychical "...as the sacred in transit from a traditional religious register into a modern scientific one." The paranormal as "...the sacred in transit from the religious and scientific registers, into a parascientific or "science mysticism" register." (p.9.)
The sacred is "...a particular structure of human consciousness that corresponds to a palpable presence, energy or power encountered in the environment." (p.9.)
Kripal then notes "Unlike the sacred, neither the psychical nor the paranormal has survived in any active form within the professional study of religion." (p.9.)
Four books:
The major part of this work is a series of four "books", namely:
* The Book as seance: Frederick Myers and the London Society for Psychical Research
* Scattering the seeds of a super-story: Charles Fort and the Fantastic Narrative of Western Occulture
* The future technology of folklore: Jacques Vallee and the UFO phenomenon
* Returning the human sciences to consciousness: Bertrand Meheust and the Sociology of the Impossible.
For each of the four "authors of the impossible" Kripal presents a review of their contributions to their respective subjects; then provides an analysis of their thinking.
As readers of this blog will be aware, I value highly the work of Jacques Vallee, so will use the "Book" on Vallee as an indicator of Kripal's observations on all four authors.
Vallee:
"When I first read Jacques Vallee, I knew immediately that I had found a writer who had something important to teach us about the history of Western esotericism, about the truths of traditional folklore, about the mysterious attraction of modern science fiction, and about the reality of paranormal phenomena..."(pp143-144.)
Kripal was impressed "...how he makes the impossible possible through the sophistication of his suspicions and the complex ways that his comparative investigations puts together the pieces and parts of his historical data in order to from a radically different picture-puzzle of things." (p.144.)
"He is thinking of something that is mythical and physical, spiritual and material at the same time." (p.146.)
Kripal reviews Vallee's early life, his interactions with Aime Michel; his work with Allen Hynek; and his development of the idea that UFOs cannot be studied without taking into account parallels with earlier reports of occult beings as described in "...folklore, magic, witchcraft, and religion..." (p.156.)
Vallee "...remains convinced that the UFO phenomenon will never be solved by the believers or the rationalists...he thinks that we have to reject the dogmatisms of both religion and science and confront the phenomenon on its own terms..." (p.158.)
Kripal takes us through the published works of Vallee. "Vallee's method here is quite interesting. He begins with the hypothesis that the absurd is meaningful, that the dilemma signals new thought, that we should be looking for the cracks or glitches in the stories in order to begin divining their latent messages...In my own terms, they are hermeneutical events that share in both the mythical and the physical." (p.162.)
Kripal summarises Vallee's approach as:
"What I read him reading in the history of folklore is a future technology projected, somehow back into our present...The future technology of folklore that Vallee is imagining here, in other words, is a technology that we may be using on ourselves to manipulate our own past, to control, as it were, our belief system and mythologies that lies well below the present political system or cultural fad of the day...It is precisely these religious systems that control our history for Vallee..." (pp173-174.)
In ending this "Book" on Vallee, Kripal notes "It should be patiently obvious by now that the models of reading and writing the history of religion that Jacques Vallee ascribes to are fundamentally esoteric ones..." (P.187.)
Kripal summarises what he sees as three Vallee "secrets." Firstly, the "gnosis of the future" where "Jacques Vallee thinks backwards, from the future to the present and then, like the rest of us, to the past." (p.187.)
Secondly, "the gnosis of multidimensionality...namely, the idea of multiple dimensional space-time and its implications for thinking about the history of religion..." (p.188.) "His journals, for example, are peppered with examples of tantalising precognitive dreams and remarkable synchronicities or what he calls "intersigns"..." (p.189.)
Thirdly, "the gnosis of the rosy cross," the Rosecrucian tradition which Vallee spent several years exploring, and which "...taught him the basic structure of esoteric thinking..." (p.192.)
In summarising Vallee's thinking, Kripal notes "...most of his own mystical experiences, which have involved intimations of the future, have inevitably come to him during writing..." (p.196.)
Kripal's own hypotheses:
Kripal reveals his own working hypothesis, similar to that of Meheust's. "The humanities have something important to offer the study of psychical and paranormal phenomena...By the humanities, I mean the study of consciousness encoded in culture..." (p.201.) "...psychical and paranormal phenomena have something important to offer the humanities..."P.201.)
"They provide us with some of the most suggestive evidence that consciousness and culture cannot be collapsed into one another but work together , in incredibly complex ways, to achieve different human potentials, different forms of reality, different (im)possibilities." (p.202.)
"My own intuitive sense is that paranormal phenomena are expressions of a deeper nondual reality that possesses both "mental" and "material" qualities that manifest according to the subjective or objective structure of an experience or experient." (p.257.)
Final comments:
This book is a very deep and complex work, which brought my own thinking back from specific UFO cases and theories, to a broader plane. Kripal certainly increased my understanding of where Vallee is coming from.
The book will not be for everyone, believers and sceptics take note. It is you, who should be reading this book.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
"Is there intelligence out there?"
Dear readers
Many UFO researchers conclude that the most likely explanation for the UFO phenomenon is that it is due to extraterrestrial visitors. If one accepts this hypothesis,then a logical part of this, is that there must be intelligent life out there in the cosmos, for it to be visiting us on Earth.
Some in mainstream science disagree about the intelligence part. One of the proponents of an alternative view is Dr Charlie Lineweaver. The magazine "Australasian Science" Volume 32, number 1, dated Jan/Feb 2011, pages 34-37 carries an article by Stephen Luntz titled "Is there intelligence out there?"
"Dr Charlie Lineweaver has presented a new take on the question of whether we are alone in the universe. He argues that the chance we will ever encounter an alien species with "human-like" intelligence is vanishingly small."
At one time, planets were thought to be rare, but now it is estimated that 10% of sun-like stars have planets.
In addition, as life started on Earth almost as soon as it was possible for it to do so, it is therefore argued that life in the universe would be common.
"Lineweaver, however, believes that it is not the conditions required for technologicl development that are lacking. Rather, there is no reason for intelligence to form-even under favourable conditions."
"Lineweaver calls this the Planet of the Apes hypothesis - the idea that if there is an intelligence niche that one or more species will eventually evolve to fill it."
"Lineweaver argues that the hypothesis doea not fit the evidence." Humans evolved in Africa, and although there were other places on Earth that we could have risen from, we did not. No where else on Earth did intelligent human life come to be.
Dr Harry Jerrison, a brain scientist, plotted encephalisation quotient versus time, on a graph. The graph indicated that brains became larger over time.
Lineweaver says "...this approach is simply looking at the world through human eyes...Lineweaver sees our enormous brains in similar terms, a freak occurrence that evolved just once..."
"Indeed, Lineweaver thinks that even if a trend toward intelligence was established among species on Earth there is no reason to believe it would be universal."
"The theory that it is human-like intelligence that is improbable, rather than life itself, resolves the apparent contradiction between Lineweaver's latest work and some of his earlier research."
Lineweaver says he is at one end of a spectrum of opinion. At the other end is Professor Simon Conway Morris who believes intelligence is inevitable and that vaguely humanoid creatures are out there.
In between, most astrobiologists say that given enough planets, intelligence will arise.
For those who think there are intelligent civilisations out there, Dr James Benson "concluded that most of the searches were being conducted in the wrong part of the radio spectrum." "It's possible intelligent civilisations are separated by very large distances."
Professor Malcolm Walter, an astrobiologist at the University of New South Wales suspects "that Lineweaver is broadly right in his conclusions. Most people working in the field would agree with the improbablity of finding industrial civilisations out there."
"Lineweaver thinks there is likely to be life on many planets....and himselef still believes that SETI has value..." However, "...he believes that SETI could turn out to be like Columbus: searching somewhere new based on a bad hypothesis but finding something of even greater value."
Many UFO researchers conclude that the most likely explanation for the UFO phenomenon is that it is due to extraterrestrial visitors. If one accepts this hypothesis,then a logical part of this, is that there must be intelligent life out there in the cosmos, for it to be visiting us on Earth.
Some in mainstream science disagree about the intelligence part. One of the proponents of an alternative view is Dr Charlie Lineweaver. The magazine "Australasian Science" Volume 32, number 1, dated Jan/Feb 2011, pages 34-37 carries an article by Stephen Luntz titled "Is there intelligence out there?"
"Dr Charlie Lineweaver has presented a new take on the question of whether we are alone in the universe. He argues that the chance we will ever encounter an alien species with "human-like" intelligence is vanishingly small."
At one time, planets were thought to be rare, but now it is estimated that 10% of sun-like stars have planets.
In addition, as life started on Earth almost as soon as it was possible for it to do so, it is therefore argued that life in the universe would be common.
"Lineweaver, however, believes that it is not the conditions required for technologicl development that are lacking. Rather, there is no reason for intelligence to form-even under favourable conditions."
"Lineweaver calls this the Planet of the Apes hypothesis - the idea that if there is an intelligence niche that one or more species will eventually evolve to fill it."
"Lineweaver argues that the hypothesis doea not fit the evidence." Humans evolved in Africa, and although there were other places on Earth that we could have risen from, we did not. No where else on Earth did intelligent human life come to be.
Dr Harry Jerrison, a brain scientist, plotted encephalisation quotient versus time, on a graph. The graph indicated that brains became larger over time.
Lineweaver says "...this approach is simply looking at the world through human eyes...Lineweaver sees our enormous brains in similar terms, a freak occurrence that evolved just once..."
"Indeed, Lineweaver thinks that even if a trend toward intelligence was established among species on Earth there is no reason to believe it would be universal."
"The theory that it is human-like intelligence that is improbable, rather than life itself, resolves the apparent contradiction between Lineweaver's latest work and some of his earlier research."
Lineweaver says he is at one end of a spectrum of opinion. At the other end is Professor Simon Conway Morris who believes intelligence is inevitable and that vaguely humanoid creatures are out there.
In between, most astrobiologists say that given enough planets, intelligence will arise.
For those who think there are intelligent civilisations out there, Dr James Benson "concluded that most of the searches were being conducted in the wrong part of the radio spectrum." "It's possible intelligent civilisations are separated by very large distances."
Professor Malcolm Walter, an astrobiologist at the University of New South Wales suspects "that Lineweaver is broadly right in his conclusions. Most people working in the field would agree with the improbablity of finding industrial civilisations out there."
"Lineweaver thinks there is likely to be life on many planets....and himselef still believes that SETI has value..." However, "...he believes that SETI could turn out to be like Columbus: searching somewhere new based on a bad hypothesis but finding something of even greater value."
Monday, January 10, 2011
"First 'Potentially Habitable' exoplanet"
Dear readers
For UFOs to be extraterrestrial visitors, there must be habitable planets elsewhere in the universe for them to come from. Up until now there has been no evidence that such planets exist.
An article in the Australian Sky and Telescope magazine, volume 7 number 1, dated January 2011 (page 12) reports on the finding of the first "Potentially habitable" exoplanet.
Gliese 581 is a red-dwarf star in the constellation of Libra. It is 20 light years from Earth.
Exoplanet Gliese 581g is a world of 3-4 Earth masses, which orbits its sun at a distance which makes it have a temperature "for life as we know it." Its diameter is calculated to be 1.2 to 1.5 times Earth's and a surface gravity of 1.5 to 2 times Earth's.
""This is both an incremental and a monumental detection" said exoplanet specialist Sara Seager (MIT.)"
For more on this exoplanet click here.
For UFOs to be extraterrestrial visitors, there must be habitable planets elsewhere in the universe for them to come from. Up until now there has been no evidence that such planets exist.
An article in the Australian Sky and Telescope magazine, volume 7 number 1, dated January 2011 (page 12) reports on the finding of the first "Potentially habitable" exoplanet.
Gliese 581 is a red-dwarf star in the constellation of Libra. It is 20 light years from Earth.
Exoplanet Gliese 581g is a world of 3-4 Earth masses, which orbits its sun at a distance which makes it have a temperature "for life as we know it." Its diameter is calculated to be 1.2 to 1.5 times Earth's and a surface gravity of 1.5 to 2 times Earth's.
""This is both an incremental and a monumental detection" said exoplanet specialist Sara Seager (MIT.)"
For more on this exoplanet click here.
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