From: Michael Christol <mchristo@mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 23:02:17 -0800
Fwd Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 06:56:59 -0500
Subject: Re: Recent UFO Sightings Lack Credibility To


 >Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 14:42:13 -0500
 >From: Kenny Young <ufo@fuse.net>
 >Subject: Recent UFO Sightings Lack Credibility To Scientists
 >To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@sympatico.ca>

 >ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
 >Tuesday, January 25, 2000 | 6:22 a.m.
 >Finally, she called the newspaper to report her encounter.

 >"I didn't believe in UFOs before," she said. "But I'm certainly
 >intrigued now."

 >Experts say movies and television shows such as "X-Files" have
 >created a culture in which people are quicker to suppose some
 >unusual object in the sky is an alien craft.

 >In that atmosphere, witnesses may feel more comfortable
 >reporting what they saw -- or think they saw. And when they do,
 >officials may not be as quick to dismiss them as crazy.

 >McKenna may have seen an extraterrestrial aircraft. But
 >scientists say it was more likely an episode of a
 >"social-psychological phenomenon," in which people believe they
 >see a UFO because they are looking for one.

 >social-psychological phenomenon," in which people believe they
 >see a UFO because they are looking for one.

 >"Most UFO reports, especially lights in the night sky, turn out
 >to be honest misidentifications," he said.

 >"I've often said that if anyone will spend one hour looking in
 >the sky on a clear night, he or she will see a UFO," said
 >Phillip Klass, founder of the Committee of the Scientific
 >Investigations of Claims of the Paranormal, in Washington.


This is so much hogwash:   "...social-psychological phenomenon,"
in which people believe they see a UFO because they are looking
for one....

I have been searching for UFOs for over 45 years and have only
had one sighting... in Sept. 1967.

I spend hours upon hours on the road, in all types of weather,
all times of the day and night, in virtually every type of
geography here in this country.

Back roads at 2 - 3 a.m.  Mountains, day and night, etc., etc.,
etc.

I go to "skywatches" for the specific reason to "see a UFO." I
don't see anything which I can't in all good consciounce
identify as astronomical, aeronautical, or weather related
phenomena.

So for Phil Klass, or any of his associates to make such a
statement is ludicrous and misleading.

 >"All its takes is one sighting report, and within days you will
 >have thousands more," said Robert Baker, a professor emeritus of
 >psychology at the University of Kentucky. "Everybody starts
 >looking up in the sky and seeing things, too."

 >This pattern is called a "social-psychological phenomenon," said
 >Baker, who has interviewed thousands of witnesses who claimed to
 >have seen UFOs.

Well, Dr Robert Baker has not interviewed _me_!  I have talked
to professors who show a total lack of respect for the
observations of those who have professed a sighting.

CSICOP are totally closed minded.  Will not go out and
investigate the area where the event took place, or talk to
other people in the area.  They simply set in their chairs and
pontificate!

I would tell them to get off their duff and get into the fields,
and backroads where the sightings take place.  You are not apt
to have to many UFO sightings setting in an office in some
University, or Corporation, as a rule.

I may not have the academic credentials of Dr. Baker, but I do
have dirt sense!  I have talked to the neighbors and those
professing the sightings.

Is this all you intellectuals have to do?   Sit on your duff and
play at sounding like "Experts in ufology?"

I don't know why you waste our time posting these type of
reports in newspapers.  They can't do anything constructive for
ufology.

Another thing.  Why aren't all of you who profess these
sightings documenting them with video and 35 mm film shots?
Isn't it amazing how all of these sightings are either made by
those who don't have a camera of some kind available, or take
pictures of "lights" in the sky, which have no definition or
background by which to measure their density?

In todays climate, there is no excuse for not having a camera
with you at virtually any time.  In your car, in your bag or
purse.

Police cars equiped with old technology video cameras.  They
should all have night vision capabilities, for obvious reasons,
not including UFO sightings.

Just for your information...I carry a 35 mm camera, binoculars,
micro-cassette recorder/player, electromagnetic field detector,
compass and geiger counter in my car all the time, and many times
I also carry a stereo, High-8mm camcorder and tripod!

Always carry a tripod!  Enough of these shaky little lights in
the black night sky.

Give me a break!  Sheesh...

REgards, Mike

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