We’d all better pray that they discover and are able to prove that the UFOs are merely a natural phenomenon because, if these things are manufactured objects, we are in deep trouble... We may have already lost a war without even knowing that one existed.
AFTERWORD
“A QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY”
Recently, an American UFO journal published a sighting by “a UFO researcher who requests to remain anonymous because he is not out for fame – only facts.” Throughout the modern UFO epoch, both ufologists and UFO skeptics have labored under the delusion that UFO reports and reporters are often motivated by a desire for personal publicity and notoriety – that they are “out for fame.” Actually, the reverse is true. General witnesses are usually most reluctant to permit their names to be used in print, and those who have granted such permission have often suffered irresponsible harassment, not at the hands of the Air Force or the mischievous “Men in Black,” but by the avid UFO buffs themselves. This harassment sometimes becomes so acute that the witnesses desperately begin denying their earlier reports, adding to the mass of speculation about mysterious “suppression.”
In one of my earliest magazine articles, I briefly mentioned the “contact” claim of a Californian TV repairman and ham radio operator, Mr. Sidney Padrick in 1965. Mr. Padrick sent a letter of protest to the magazine, asserting that while he believed his story was true, he no longer wished his name to be associated with the subject.
In 1968, I interviewed a young man in Adelphi, Maryland who described an extraordinary encounter with a flying saucer, and a subsequent visit to another planet. He asked that his name not be used. A year or so later, a group of UFO buffs in Washington, D.C. induced him to appear publicly on radio and give a lecture describing his alleged experiences. His name was revealed, of course. In a letter dated Aug. 11, 1970, this percipient, Thomas Monteleone, stated:
Ever since those appearances, I have been pestered and plagued by a horde of kooks. They call, write, stop to visit, etc. They drove me crazy. Some of my very close friends began to advise me of the dangers to my reputation that these types of individuals were posing. I decided to tell them all, once and for all, that I desired no more public contact. Although the experiences I had were completely true, I sometimes wish I had never revealed them to anyone. The only reason I made them known was because I thought I could help to verify and uncover some of the mystery that shrouds the UFO phenomenon… I should have kept my mouth shut like I had planned to, when you first interviewed me.
Unfortunately, Mr. Monteleone’s experiences were not unique. I usually avoid “blind” (anonymous) accounts in my articles and books. Many of the witnesses I have named (with their express permission) have later complained to me about the outrageous harassment to which they have been subjected. The most common complaint is the lack of courtesy displayed by self-styled UFO investigators, who belligerently invade their privacy at all hours of the day and night.
A carload of teenagers or college students might suddenly drive up unannounced at 10 p.m. The youngsters flourish membership cards to some UFO organization and literally demand an interview. These interviews are often conducted at an inept, impolite, and even insulting level. After a few such interviews, the witnesses are naturally reluctant to submit to any more.
Insulting phone calls are also common. A number of witnesses have told me of calls they have received, often from long distance, from persons purporting to be well-known UFO investigators. “How much did Keel pay you to say this?” is one favorite phrase of these callers. Antagonistic mail on the same order is also common. Many witnesses have passed along the strange, often outrageous letters they have received from individuals well known in ufology. Any witness who undergoes this sort of treatment naturally quickly assumes that all UFO enthusiasts are crazy. They soon refuse to have anything to do with any of them.
Soon after my articles on the “Mothman” sightings in Pt. Pleasant, WV appeared in print, the named witnesses were inundated with phone calls, letters, and personal visits from untrained, impolite UFO enthusiasts. Eventually the local sheriff adopted a policy of denying everything that had been published on the events in Pt. Pleasant. (I should point out that many other writers and reporters had investigated and written about those events independent of me.) Today, very few of the people in Pt. Pleasant are willing to even discuss the affair with any outsiders.
Many ufologists tend to confuse excessive suspicion with objectivity. Actually, the suspicion that one finds among ufologists usually follows the classic patterns of paranoia. The field does seem to attract schizophrenic-paranoiacs. Such types are often driven by an urge to attain personal publicity and recognition. They often assume that others, such as the average people who become UFO witnesses, suffer from a similar urge.
In truth, the average person has no desire for publicity, and certainly has no desire whatsoever to be connected with any “far out” subject. The UFO enthusiasts have transferred their own shortcomings to the witnesses through their speculations. These two unfortunate traits, the urge for personal publicity and the tendency to apply excessive suspicion to all things ufological, have generated a large part of the UFO lore and, more important, created and sustained the aura of ridicule that has surrounded the subject for twenty years.
In 1969, I compiled a special issue for England’s Flying Saucer Review, which contained detailed reports on a number of significant new cases that had been carefully investigated by myself and others. Soon after the special issue (called Beyond Condon) appeared, one of America’s best-known UFO researchers circulated an incredible “open letter” not only accusing me of having fabricated the cases out of whole cloth, but also of having “invented” some of the other contributors to the magazine, such as Richard S. Hack!
While such tactics are amusing to professionals outside the UFO field, they demonstrate the sad state of ufology in general. The field has always been dominated by petty gossip (usually totally unfounded), amateurish speculation, and unchecked hearsay. Many people have found expression for their immaturity in ufology. Emotional believers have added to the bedlam by accepting unverified nonsense as fact whenever it fell into the pattern of their beliefs.
New myths are constantly being added to the UFO maze. One of the most popular “truths” of ufology, at the present time, is that the “negative” Condon Report effectively squelched public interest in the subject. The truth is that the Condon Report received very little national publicity when compared to such things as the recent Report of the Presidential Commission on Pornography. The Condon Report sold very few copies in paperback. Various independent polls have shown that the average American has never even heard of the “Condon Report,” and that only 12% of the working press has heard of it. The Condon Report has had a negligible effect on public opinion, and it has received the most publicity from the UFO enthusiasts themselves! If the UFO enthusiasts had not discussed it angrily at lectures, on radio and television, etc., the Condon Report would have had even less effect. But the buffs will undoubtedly blame the steady decline of ufology on Dr. Condon for years to come.
When one reviews the history of the past twenty-three years objectively, we are confronted with a set of appalling facts. The emotional (“Disclosure”) causes and anti-government tirades of the past served no purpose and obtained no results. The endless personality clashes and publicity-seeking “ego trips” of the leading ufologists have only contributed to the ridicule and nonsense. Ufology has made virtually no discernible progress since 1947. Indeed, the interested scientists and journalists of the 1947-55 period made stronger statements and conducted more systematic research than any of the present crop.
Virtually nothing of importance has been said or done since 1955. Instead, the modern UFO witnesses choose to remain silent rather than involve themselves with the “kooks” engaged in UFO research. The Air Force has abandoned the field altogether, thus eliminating the favorite target of the emotionalists.
If we are to re
store ufology to even the 1955 level, we must first introduce a sense of responsibility and rationalism. Witnesses must be approached with courtesy and understanding, not with rude suspicion. Logic and a sound methodology must replace the hysterical speculation. Before flying saucers can become respectable, the flying saucer enthusiasts must find respectability themselves.
-John Keel
(From Flying Saucers magazine, June 1971)
John Keel (left) and Andy Colvin (right) prior to the unveiling of the Mothman statue in Pt. Pleasant, WV, 2003.
Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind: Selected Writings of John A. Keel Page 36