The
Case of Flying Saucers
by
Manly Palmer Hall
(33ø), July 2, 1950
Typed lecture notes by Virginia B. Pomeroy
This morning our purpose is to analyze certain aspects of the
human mind in connection with the mysterious case of the
Flying Saucers. First of all I would like to create a little
parallel, something that will help folks to see just what we
are up against in a matter of this kind. Quite a number of
years ago a famous stage magician by the name of Harry Keller
created a strange illusion, he perfected in stage magic the
Illusion of levitation. Keller, who was a very able exponent
of the art of conjuring, worked out a method by the means of
which the human body could be suspended in the middle of a
well lighted stage without any visible means of support. He
was able to so project it that a committee, honestly chosen
from the audience could walk around the stage and even could
walk under the floating body. Of course, in those days
legerdemain was one of the principal forms of entertainment.
It has failed in popularity because folks of our generation
are insulted rather than amused when they are fooled. Keller
gave his professional secret, the mystery of the floating
lady, to Howard Thurston, who exhibited it to the public
throughout his life. In order to add glamour to the
spectacle, the scene was decked in Oriental splendor, like
the Arabian Nights, which brought to the mind of the beholder
the wonderful story of the magic of the East, all of which
contributed to the disorientation of his judgment, which was
the necessary ingredient of such entertainment.
After watching this illusion a number of times from the
audience, I used to listen to the explanations that were
given. Those present knew in their common mind that it was a
trick of some kind. The majority of these audiences assumed
that and were not profoundly shaken in their judgment even
though completely deceived by their eyes, which proved
definitely that you cannot always believe what you see. There
were, however, in such groups several classes of people, and
there was always that little group interested in Eastern
mysticism, which would have been willing to die to defend the
belief that the lady actually floated, that it was done by a
secret formula right out of the Arabian Nights. Nothing could
have convinced them to the contrary.
Then there was another group semantically addicted to the
belief that conjurers and mirrors were always associated.
When you do not know how it is done, it is done by mirrors.
So another group was very smug, happy and wise and knew all
about it, it was done with mirrors. Having decided that, they
gained proper distinction in their own eyes and among their
associates and they were ready to enjoy the performance.
There was another group with a more scientific type of mind.
This group would gather in the corner of the lobby and
explain in detail how it was all done with magnets. Magnets
were the mysterious thing you could do anything with. It
never occurred to these people to have it done by magnets
would be more difficult than to have the lady actually float.
I listened to these groups explaining the wonder and it was
only on rare occasions that anyone ever suggested anything
that was close to the facts. In the first place, facts were
too simple and in the second place, the mind was conditioned
away from the prosaic understanding of the matter. It was
very amusing because I happened to know how it was done
having been present on a number of occasions when the device
was assembled. They did not realize how perfectly, how simply
and how completely the human mind can be misdirected. Of
course, incidentally, we may say there was the lunacy fringe
that had decided the whole audience had been hypnotized. But
the real answer was very simple, but very cleverly and
intelligently worked out.
Also when I was younger than I am now, considerably, I lived
in a small town where circuses went by. One year before these
more recent devices, such as the radio, but not before the
party line on the telephones which was the great method of
communication at the turn of the century, everybody listened
to everybody else, the deepest rut in the linoleum was in
front of the phone. On this occasion an old, decrepit, dying,
mangy lioness disappeared from one of the cages. In the
following week the lioness was sighted in an area of over
five hundred miles. It was seen anywhere from three to ten
places at the same time. It frightened dozens of reputable,
honest, God-fearing citizens, all of then solid citizens.
Then the lioness showed up dead two hundred yards from the
circus tent. It had ambled over there and fallen dead. Yet
all of those who reported having seen it were honest,
God-fearing people, which brings us to a simple fact that has
been studied and analyzed for centuries, that is the delusion
of masses.
Once a story starts it is almost impossible to determine how
far it will go and how many variations it will assume before
the journey is ended. Like interesting fragments of gossip it
develops jet propulsion and also passes through innumerable
transformations, so the final account has little resemblance
to the original story. Knowing these tendencies of the human
mind, these tendencies that are present in perfectly honest
and honorable people, we have to approach all remarkable
accounts, not in an effort to demonstrate how remarkable they
are, but to discover, if possible some simple, natural,
normal explanation, clinging to that until that explanation
itself obviously falls. There are always levels of
explanations ascending from the simple to the complex. We
should carefully wear out every level, exhausting its most
reasonable probabilities before we ascend to more rarefied
strata of opinions.
Not long ago I was talking to a gentleman who had had a very
bad moment, he had nearly killed a friend while out deer
hunting. He told me the happiest moment of his life was the
moment he realized he had missed him. But he said while he
was aiming, while he was attempting to shoot what he believed
to be the deer, which, of course, was obscured in the
thicket, he would have taken an oath on any Bible and swear
before God as a witness, that he actually believed he saw the
deer. He saw movement, he saw movement in the underbrush,
twig and branches took the actual appearance of antlers, and
he was perfectly willing to swear that he saw the deer.
Now such visualization along lines of expectancy is not a new
experience, and after a number of reports are circulated we
have to recognize the possibility of such delusions. We must,
however, bear in mind that the elements of delusion may not
disprove the entire structure, but may account for certain
difficulties which arrive later. I read an article recently
on the flying saucers in which one researcher in the field
was attempting to reconcile all the differences in the
accounts, and trying to find an explanation large enough to
include all the details of the various authentic statements.
This was to my mind a mistake. These authentic details will
probably never be completely reconciled when all the facts
are known. It is not necessary for us to verify every tiny
thread of the report. It is impossible. These very threads
may be so tangled and so exaggerated and enlarged in the
retelling, that they obscure rather than contribute to a
general statement of facts. The facts will probably show that
a great many honest reports were untrue and that many very
simple and factual elements were completely overlooked.
I do not believe there is any use in attempting to explain
away the existence of these flying saucers. Even had we not
the most recent reports, such as that which appeared in the
last issue of the Readers Digest, and even before that,
probably a year ago when Winchell mentioned the flying
saucers in his column, telling the people not to worry, it
was a government secret, even without these statements that
have never been disputed there is still evidence enough that
there is something, or several somethings, that has been
seen. Thus we may assume without any great exaggeration that
something not previously generally considered is happening,
and that there are basic truths under the stories of the
flying saucers, that these truths like the levitation of the
lady, have been explained very badly is also pretty evident,
inasmuch as explanation utterly irreconcilable cannot all be
right. Conversely, we can say they cannot all be wrong. That
may also be possible, then again the truth may be a little
different from all the reports, because it is hard to
formulate reports where the necessary facts are not
available.
But assuming for the moment that which I think we are
entitled to assume without too much allowance for
imagination, that something has been seen, and that the
various reports about it like those matters in which they are
in common agreement may have some validity, we are then
confronted with the question of what we have seen. Nearly all
accounts report several different things seen. Naturally,
some of these accounts, including the flying cucumber, and
the report of a great space ship that took fifteen minutes to
float across the horizon, and reached from side to side of
the visual heavens, might be suspected of exaggeration. These
things get larger the longer we think about them, and like
the famous fish story, they improve with the telling and with
the enthusiasm of the narrator.
The various things seen and described can be classified into
various groups; one group consisting of the flying saucer
which is round, almost round, oblong, concave and convex.
That various sizes have been noted, we know, some being of no
great size, and others being of considerable proportion. Then
something resembling the jet propulsion machine, either
without wings, or with exceedingly thin, fin-like extensions,
propelled by a tremendous power from what appeared to be
gills on the sides, the whole structure shaped roughly like a
cigar, have also been described by several persons. Detached
floating lights that are seemingly under control have also
been noted. Rays, beams and lights, and such phenomena,
disassociated from any visible structure have been reported.
These might, theoretically, represent the distortion due to
the pressure of the excitement of seeing something, but as
the reports gather and fall naturally into several
classifications they are worthy of being given consideration
in those classifications.
But we must consider the type of person testifying. Several
witnesses have been of more than common integrity, they have
been specialists in various fields, they have been experts in
aerial physics, and things of that nature. We must also take
into consideration the pressure of an enlarged legend and how
this legend can bring with it a tendency toward the
fulfillment of expectancy. No sooner had the mysterious
missiles, or whatever they were, begun to accumulate as
stories, then we began to have the same type of thing that we
had in the story of the floating lady. We had a number of
well-authenticated, well- documented forms of hysteria. Of
course the milleniumists moved in immediately. This was a new
indication of the end of the world and the Second Coming. I
think that can be somewhat discounted. I do not believe the
next Avatar will arrive on a flying saucer. In spite of the
delinquencies of humanity I am also loath to believe we are
apt to be wiped out by the wrath of the Almighty, or
something of that nature. Not the wrath of the Almighty, but
the stupidity of man, is causing most of the trouble. So
those who used the flying saucer as a “Repent ye, the day is
at hand” made quite a stir at the time and worked upon the
level of thinking that has been so tormented in the past by
such procedures as to be rather receptive to the most
incredible beliefs. This would be equivalent to tying the
floating lady to the Arabian Nights, and making it appear it
could be justified that the magician is a fakir of India, or
some other equally wonderful explanation.
The next question that arose was the possibility that the so-
called flying saucers were a guided or propelled weapon, and
that they were the result of experimental research in
military armament. I imagine that if at any time since the
flurry began Mr. Gallup had conducted a poll on public
opinion, he would have found the idea that they were
experimental research in arms was held by the majority of
people, end to a degree this rather matter of fact attitude
toward the subject would indicate that the mass mind is more
calm and collected than any of the individual elements which
compose it. If the flying saucer, the floating cigar, and the
very highly stratified will-o’-the-wisp, if these were
indications of armament projects, then naturally it would be
difficult for the average citizen to pierce the protective
wall which the government has placed around such research
under prevailing world conditions.
I remember very well the flurry in Santa Fe and that area
during the development of the atom bomb. Santa Fe is only a
short distance from Los Alamos where so much of the research
was carried on, and of course the cracker barrel congress was
held in the lobby of the Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. It was
there the great physicists brushed elbows with the agents of
espionage from various countries. It was there that
detectives and secret service men were breathing down each
other’s necks all the time. It was here also we had a factory
for rumors that was almost out of this world. Everyone had
the inside of it. Everyone had a friend who had a friend who
was in the know. The stories, when the facts became known,
were all of them wrong, but each one was strongly defended by
a group of champions who are now ready to defend something
else equally uncertain.
I remember one day while I was down there in that mountain
country, something happened that almost belongs in the
department, projects flying saucers. Out on a ranch there of
several thousand acres, and standing on the side of a hill
with the view extending from ten, twenty or thirty miles, I
noticed one afternoon an extraordinary roar. It was far
stronger and more powerful than the sound of any ordinary
airplane motor, even a large transport or passenger plane.
Suddenly without any warning whatever, this roaring took on
the proportions of a definite vibration and some thing moved
at an incredible rate passing almost directly over the place
where I was standing. That it was moving very close to the
ground was evidenced from the fact that pinion trees not more
than ten feet high were bent half way to the ground. The
thing passed in a fraction of a second, but I saw absolutely
nothing although there was ample visibility for miles in the
direction in which the sound seemed to fade out. What it was
I have not the slightest idea, but I am quite certain it was
not the Second Coming. The thought that came to mind was that
it was a jet-propelled instrument of some kind, moving more
rapidly than the human perception could follow, and by the
time I could organize myself to look for it, it was gone.
That almost certainly was the answer. It is also quite
possible that the sound of the instrument, or whatever it
was, was such that it actually was moving in the opposite
direction from that which the sound seemed to be traveling,
and in looking in one direction I failed to see it because it
moved in the opposite direction. Anyway, nothing was visible,
it left no track of any kind, no smoke or gas, there was a
terrific roar as it moved over the ground, bending the trees
and it was gone. Well, at that time what was going on in
these research laboratories was not known to us, but it
seemed almost certain that it was a high powered, possibly
jet-propelled plane. I thought no more of it and said nothing
about it until it came to my mind in connection with the
project saucer. Almost certainly these things have an
explanation in terms of the incredible advancements that have
been made in scientific research in recent years.
Considering the next problem we have to bear in mind also the
association between the concept of the flying saucer and the
rapidly intensifying scientific-fiction literature which is
getting more and more attention in the popular mind each
year. This is like tying the story of the floating lady to
the Mahatmas of India. It is a fortuitous circumstance that
reality and fiction should exist at the same time which would
incline thousands, possibly millions of people, to enlarge
their sense of the possible and cause them confusion when
trying to estimate the probabilities. We have become
comparatively immune to such abstracts as interplanetary
travel, we have become immune to the fantastic fortunes of
Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. We would not be surprised to
see Superman float in our window at any minute; there might
be a slight shook but nothing serious.
We
are being constantly conditioned by the pressure on one hand
of a scientific fiction concept, and on the other hand by the
quiet but intense findings of our great geophysicists and
astrophysicists, and persons of that caliber. These groups
seem to melt together and defend each other, but this defense
is more of appearance than reality.
If we go beyond the second theory of the possibility of
international armament, which we will come back to later, we
come into the most delightful phase of the whole problem, and
that is the problem of interplanetary or interworld
communication. The reasonable and inevitable conclusion held
by some as being demonstrable and the only adequate
explanation is that the flying saucer is a space ship. Back
to our illusion, there is no doubt in the world that the lady
floats because of magnets. Obviously, there is no other
explanation except the scientific theory. Now the space-ship
idea appeals to a great many people but it has been my
observation during the two and a half years I have been
watching it, that it appeals to the wrong people; that is, it
has appealed to a group of people who represent a level of
worry, a group that is always present and always ready to be
involved in such problems.
One of the interesting phases has been to draw Charles Fort
and some of his opinions into it in an effort to prove that
mysterious atmospheric visitors have been reported for more
than two hundred years. Now, if that can be proved then we
have a new equation to consider, but before we consider it
seriously let us remember that not only were the aeronautical
sciences inferior two hundred years ago to anything we have
today — in fact unknown except to men like Leonardo — but the
general approach to any phenomena was exceedingly inadequate.
We have in the history of periods back to the beginning of
time, reports of various things. Let us consider, for
example, the accounts of comets. Scientific books, and books
of pseudo-scientific interest, borderline theories, very
often include tables of comets, in which the shape, form and
appearance of comets are distinctly described. Some of them
show as many as twenty forms of comets, each type in the form
or shape of some familiar object, a comet exactly the shape
of a sword with hilt and decoration, a comet exactly the
shape of a snake with two eyes and a forked tongue, a comet
exactly the shape of a crown with jewels set around it. These
comets were claimed to have been seen, and one was reported
in the form of a sword hanging over Jerusalem at the time of
its fall, and a similar one was seen hanging over Mexico City
at the time of Cortez.
Now I think we can safely say that in the experience of
astronomy in the last two hundred years there have been no
comets that exactly resembled swords. There are no comets
that can be seen writhing away through the sky like snakes,
and there are no comets that resemble physical articles so
closely that the article itself seems to be floating there.
So we must assume a considerable degree of interpretation. We
can also find well authenticated accounts of sea-serpents,
lake monsters, and within the last two hundred years quite a
collection of very justifiable, authentic and conscientious
descriptions of mermaids. These are not due to the desire to
deceive, but it is believed that a certain type of penguin
was mistaken at a distance for a mermaid. That is quite
possible, although to me they look more like a groom at a
wedding, but a dozen penguins standing an a piece of ice,
just barely within the actual vision range of some old salt
of the Seven Seas, suddenly developed long golden curls and
started playing harps gesticulating wildly. These stories are
not intentional fabrications, they are the result of the
human mind looking for that which it expects, and taking a
dim and uncertain form and clothing it in those expectations.
The problem of space navigation around this planet is one
which remains as yet in the position of remote probability,
nothing is impossible. We should be wise enough to realize
that, and we should also be modest enough to recognize that
other planets might have very well developed arts and
sciences, far beyond our own accomplishments. At the same
time we have incredible time factors. We have to begin to
think of man or creature built machines that can go at the
speed of light. We have to think of cosmic energy already
controlled as a means of fuel. We have to further assume that
the production of space ships on other planets, or other
suns, or other planets revolving around other suns, would
present innumerable difficulties. We have incredible
difficulties, difficulties as to whether creatures of other
worlds could even exist in the atmosphere of the earth, which
would make it necessary for them to be protected by some
special kind of device. We have already so completely
embraced the concept of a trip to the moon that the first two
or three journeys are already sold out and it will not be
long until they will be subdividing with a slight additional
charge for frontage facing the earth.
Some three, four or five years ago people believed so
certainly that lost Lemuria was coming up near the coast of
California that they even bought land that has not shown up
yet. There is always someone to believe everything, but the
problem of the space ship as a solution to the present
dilemma should be held, it seems to me, as a last recourse to
be considered only when every other explanation fails. It
involves too much that is imponderable to us, too large an
explanation for what we see and for what we have seen. It
makes the tail of the kite much longer than the kite and
gives us such a tremendous disorientation that we should
consider it carefully. The concept, in fact, as far as can be
discerned, landed on the public mind with a dull thud. It
would be impossible to assume that we would have the present
sense of complacency in the matter if we really believed that
these ships navigated by intelligent creatures capable of
building them were approaching and sailing around in good
military formation, not alone entirely, but in bunches and
clusters, without a definite reaction from the only group
that could really estimate what it means, and that is, your
scientific body.
The only person able to mentally envision even twenty-five
per cent of the implication would be your physicists,
astrophysicists and your researcher in the fields of cosmic
energy and atomic power. These particular people are not
apparently suffering from unnervement. They are not
collapsing on street corners, they are not wandering around
their homes absent-mindedly as though the sword of Damocles
was hanging over their heads, they are not breaking up and
falling to pieces under the nerve tension of it. In fact,
from these distant, austere ivory towers there is a
thundering silence. The wrong people are talking about space
navigation. If there were a reasonable probability of these
mysterious things actually being the spearhead of a possible
“project earth” being carried on from elsewhere, this fact in
itself would almost inevitably unite the earth in a common
determination to devote every possible research of every
nation to determining the aims, purposes and means available
for such contact between this planet and another. We would
have no more right to assume that such space visitors were
friendly than we would have a right to assume they were
unfriendly. If they exist and are capable of such methods of
transportation they must be accepted as at least equal and
possibly superior to ourselves in scientific accomplishment,
because if they exist they got to us well before we had the
means to get to them, which would indicate a very high degree
of scientific knowledge.
That these strangers for some reason might scout the outer
atmosphere of the planet is fantastic but conceivable, but
that they should suddenly take such an interest in these
matters, gives us time for pause. Either those in the best
position to know do not believe that these mysterious
projectiles come from the outer atmosphere, they do not
believe they are space ships, or the whole group of them is
the most idiotic combination ever recorded. They are stupid
beyond concept if they believe or have any scientific
evidence of penetration of our earth’s atmosphere from the
outside and are still worrying about China, Korea, India,
Russia, America, England or any other nation on the earth. If
our experts are still pondering how to raise taxes, or lower
the budget, or the politicians and statesmen of the world are
still trying to cheat each other, in the presence of such a
situation, then their imbecility is beyond calculation.
The least we should expect from those like Einstein, or other
leaders In these fields, although they might be able to
explain something created by another culture, is that they
shall not be indifferent to its imponderables. If these
people have information which they are not passing on to
other leaders of the world, information that would unite the
planet against a possible threat, if such things do not
happen we must assume that those in a position to make them
happen either know a great deal, or else are incapable of
knowing anything. While there might be exceptions to both
extremes it seems unlikely that we have a complete breakdown
among all the leaders of our higher scientific and diplomatic
life.
It would therefore appear that unless we see more interest in
preparing the planet on the basis of a global concept that we
are not much concerned about this possibility. You will
remember the result at the beginning of the second world war
of the actions and intentions of Hitler when his planes flew
over France without dropping a bomb, until the people hardly
expected anything to happen, then suddenly without warning a
terrific bombardment began. The possibility that space ships
floating in the earth’s atmosphere might be cruising about
indefinitely for no reason is no better a possibility than
that these are the spearhead of a project of some kind, and
the earth, its people, its leaders and scientists, should
either be unrolling the red carpet for friendly visitors, or
else getting into a position for taking care of unfriendly
ones. Neither procedure has been followed. Therefore, we can
only assume that the space ship theory is interesting people
who are interested in the scientific-fiction approach to
life, but not those deeply concerned with the salvation of
the planet. There seems to be no reason for the assumption,
and no actual-proof, that these mysterious flying saucers and
their retinues of other factors have to be explained as
belonging to some other universe, or coming to us from out of
space.
There is an ingenious belief that the explosion of the atom
bomb here and the recent report of something that happened in
the flash of an instant, purported to be an explosion on
Mars, might be tied together, and that the investigation of
the planet is due to the reports of such atomic phenomena
which has been noted by the astronomers and physicists on
another planet, but this again more or less undermines the
idea that scientific-fiction writers have advanced, that this
touring around the earth’s atmosphere has been going on long
before the atomic bomb. The whole issue is a little too
confused on these matters to require much further
consideration along those lines. I think it is possible that
some day there will be communication between planets, but we
will have to make several very marked advances beyond even
what we know as our atomic project before we will be ready to
launch ourselves into the incredible vicissitudes of space,
where we know with the highest concept of energy and power we
possess today, that even presuming we had all the equipment
necessary, the human being would not live long enough to make
the trip there and back, even with very old age. That such
things might happen on other planets where life might be
different, where life may be longer and the problem of the
rejuvenation of life has been accomplished, all this is
possible, but where it means fifteen, twenty or twenty-five
years of travel through space at an incredible speed, with
fuel problems almost beyond estimation, traveling at a speed
almost as great as that of light, we might be wise and look
for something simpler, and only depend upon such a concept in
an emergency. Where everything else fails we are forced to
fall back on the miraculous as an explanation of the problem
we face.
Now let us consider the problem that was originally advanced.
and which has been more or less sustained by documentation
and recent reports. We know that on various continents in
secluded areas very elaborate experimental laboratories have
been functioning for a number of years. We know that prior to
the collapse of Germany the Germans were already pondering a
number of ideas in relationship to the development of atomic
armament, and fantastic, scientific dreams about the earth’s
outer atmosphere. Many of these scientists survived the
disastrous collapse of Hitler’s regime, and have disappeared
behind the Iron Curtain. It is known with reasonable
certainty at least a few of these scientist are now
cooperating with the Russian atomic project. We also have
every reason to believe that that project is situated in the
great Mongoliain area in a little community called the State
of Tanna-Tuva, where many of these laboratories are
underground and where research in atomic missiles and in the
delivery of these missiles is under consideration. There are
almost certainly other such centers of this research which
will account for the reports of jet- propelled rockets, or
something of that nature that were seen in a considerable
number over Sweden and other Scandinavian countries several
years ago. There are other reports that Britain has
experimental projects in Australia and Canada. There is every
reason to believe that even France may be carrying on
moderate work in one of her lesser known colonial
possessions. We do not know exactly where, but we can well
imagine they could do a lot of private work in Madagascar,
where the inhabitants seldom leave their own country, and
very few people go there. That the United States has an
elaborate research project we know too well to even question
it, because the reports that come out, little by little, are
backed up by every indication that we actually lead the world
in that type of research.
That all these nations are searching for certain means which
include both missiles and the delivery of missiles, and
undoubtedly include a number of other problems relating to
matters of which we have no knowledge — and probably it is
not good that we necessarily have knowledge if that knowledge
can be of any comfort or assistance to a real or potential
enemy — cannot be questioned. We know, for example, that we
hear very little about the development of bacteriological
warfare, yet there have been hints of research in that field,
and from material that has come to my hands I do not think
all of it is imagination. There has been a hint of
pollutional warfare in which sources of, water can be so
rapidly and definitely contaminated as to completely wipe out
huge areas of civilian population. These things in themselves
are very terrible to think about, very horrible to
contemplate, but are still, apparently, the inevitable
consequence of the materialistic trend of our way of life. We
are dooming a great part of our own race to destruction by
our own ingenuity. We have enough strength and
resourcefulness to do this but we have not as yet sufficient
greatness of heart and goodness of spirit to find
constructive solutions to world problems. With the situation
as it is we must realistically recognize a tremendous rise in
atomic armament, a tremendous determination for one people to
excel or exceed all others in the accomplishment of the
instrument of offensive warfare.
There seems to be very good grounds for believing flying
saucers are an experimental project in such warfare research.
There has been some question as to where they came from. A
recent opportunist film indicated they originated in Russia.
I think probably that would cause Uncle Joe to have a broad
smile under his mustache. I do not believe that is true. I
think again it is the field of the unknown dramatized by the
mystery of the Iron Curtain. We always wonder what someone is
doing who is off in a corner where we cannot see him. It
seldom interests us sufficiently to go over and explore, we
simply sit down and wonder. The chances are if we go over we
find him doing something just as useless as we would be doing
under the same circumstances, probably nothing.
But with the conviction of Russia’s broad militaristic
program, and the great chart or map of the Communist
revolution dangling before our eyes, we are quite certain
that with the various scientific minds that have been
commandeered from other countries, the Russians could be well
on their way toward the development of atomic science, and
through spies, espionage and treason have most of our
knowledge on the subject. Therefore it would seem possible to
some that these missiles might be of Russian origin.
This presents us, however, with another problem. Problems
multiply when we contemplate them. One is, what would cause
the massing of these missiles over certain areas of our own
country where they would be extremely remote from their
source or origin. If these missiles were developed within the
boundaries of the Soviet Union, even in Mongolia, they would
have to cross Japan, or at least the great Pacific wastes,
and finally come here, almost half way around the world. That
such missiles traveling at such distances should be so
completely controlled as to be able to move a little to the
right or left when some airplane approaches them would be a
little hard to believe in terms of guided missiles. That
guided missiles might be brought within a reasonable scope of
their objective, yes, but most of the reports of these
projects indicate that the instrument was exceedingly
sensitive in its reaction to almost any contact.
Well, we have again the dear old magnetic theories and other
things to fall back on, but the fact seems to beg if the
missiles were guided and came from another nation there would
be a larger report of these disabled in various ways,
disintegrated in mid air, or things of that nature. It at
least offers an interesting thought, but it seems unlikely as
a first choice that if these missiles contained living
persons and are guided by crews, which might be possible with
the larger ones, that they would be used experimentally by
one nation on the opposite side of the earth from its own
laboratory and expose them to a number of accidents which
might dump them and their entire secret right into the lap of
the enemy. Of course, there is the possibility of detonation
equipment intended to destroy the instrument in case of
disability. The possibility of such instruments themselves
being destroyed when they become disabled brings up the
problem of a crew that would have to bail out or die with it,
and even if the crew died with it, there would be wreckage of
some kind, so it would seem such an experiment would be
carried on over an isolated area. That it should be so secret
and so wonderful that no one is allowed to know anything
about it, and yet to have the testing field on the opposite
side of the earth presents too many technical difficulties to
me.
Another consideration we have to face is, that for whatever
espionage we have operating in countries dominated by the
Soviet policy to have no way of determining the work going on
there, this seems a little strange, and it also seems a
little strange that absolutely no effort has been made by any
of our equipped military forces to shoot down or attack any
of them. Nothing has been done to pursue and investigate
them. Where any effort has been made to contact them, it was
instinctively on the part of some individual pilot who
thought for a moment of trying to ram the disk or something
of that nature. There is no program, as might be expected for
those in authority being ordered to get hold of one of these
disks. Even traveling at high speed over various areas a few
potshots should have been taken at them. An alert could have
been created, and still could be, by which some military
emplacement would get a visible opportunity to turn
anti-aircrafts on them, but no such thing has been done.
Certainly a foreign country sending such instruments without
our knowledge could not complain if we attacked and destroyed
them. In some instances they have been reported as low as one
thousand feet, in other instances as high as fifty, or twenty
thousand feet, and at other places have been reported to be
stationary for a considerable time. These reports indicate
efforts could be made to bring them down if anyone wanted to
do it.
There has gradually drifted out from the same sources a
report that the facts about the saucers are known and those
who apparently have the facts are not worried. I met one
individual who has the facts, who was not talking. He did not
tell me anything, but he was not collapsing from worries, in
fact, he was playing bridge. Now with so heavy a cosmic
secret as some folks would like to maintain, it does seem
like he would have trumped his partner’s ace, but he was in
good form. He was undoubtedly a member of the air
intelligence and knew the answer.
The only conclusion that seems to be reasonable and carries a
larger part of the story is that which is now beginning to
drift to our contemplation, and that is that the flying
saucers and the floating cigars are the products of our own
research equipment, that the flying saucer is some type of
research device, an experimental device for either defensive
or offensive armament. It is the only practical explanation
that exists. This explanation violates none of the essential
facts of the matter. So prosaic an explanation should not
immediately discourage us. There is every indication that the
secret of the flying saucer will come to the public in the
relatively near future, that the time of useful secrecy is
nearly passed. Whatever it is we will know, and whatever
knowledge we receive will be received with mixed emotions by
those who have already thought about it. Some will accept it
when the explanation comes, other will insist that the
explanation is only a blind to cover up the fact that Venus,
or Mars, or a Fixed Star has frightened us out of our wits.
Actually, almost certainly the explanation will be the
correct one.
Upon the point of explanation we can all speculate. Certainly
I have no further enlightenment on it than anyone else has.
If anyone really knows it would be his duty to refrain from
any factual statement as long as the government or
intelligence service desires that it should be that way, but
without any prior knowledge, therefore without any
restrictions of secrecy we can speculate within the bounds of
the reasonable. Our speculations may be as false as any
other, but there are things that apparently are necessary in
armament today, and we may be right to assume that that which
is necessary to the balancing of the efficiency of our modern
defense program would be the logical direction in which
research would be carried on. We would be plugging weaknesses
in our defense structure and also plugging weaknesses in our
offensive program if we have to carry a program of offense
into another nation’s territory.
The one thing that seems to me to have been a weakness, up to
the moment, in nearly all the defense programs, and the
offensive programs of other nations, is in the ingenuity for
the discovery of such incredible instruments as the atomic
bomb, the hydrogen bomb, the bacteriological bomb and the
pollutional bomb, the difficulty with all of them is
delivery. The only way we have of delivering them at the
moment is the old traditional forms. We can deliver them by
controlled rockets, which, however, as was proved in the
blitz on England was not effective directly and against which
various defenses could be created. We can deliver them in
high-powered, high-flying airplanes, in which one plane in a
large convoy of planes carries the bomb, but against this we
will find a rising tide of defense. No matter how far we
extend the ceiling for anti-aircraft, the enemy can extend
the anti-aircraft defense. We have the problem of trying to
reach a destination with various kinds of material.
We also have another problem which relates to protection
against types of armament, which we can well imagine will be
developed in other countries, but about which our public
knows nothing. This interval of efficiency between available
means of accomplishing certain projects, and the more
desirable means, could explain the problem of saucers. It
could well represent a guided missile or an instrument with a
living crew, capable of certain advantages in the delivery of
armament, in the delivery of bombs, or the delivery of some
forms of material. They could also definitely be useful in
development of observation in the discovery and checking of
the activities of an enemy. But their construction, their
formation, the way they operate suggest they have one of
several possibilities, either they are going to be used for
the distribution of rays or some natural force that could be
the focal point, possibly some means of short- circuiting
motors, or affecting or attacking various mechanized devices.
or they could be used for the delivery of bombs, they could
control or pilot robots, and function upon larger instruments
and give the nation that has them complete control over the
air.
That this type of thinking should be consistent with the
projects as we know them, and with the temper and thought of
our times, would seem to suggest that this is the general
direction. There is always a possibility they may represent
an entirely new dimension of cosmic rays or the penetration
of some principle of energy by which we could have very
definite advantages. There is a discussion as to the
possibility of these devices being radioactive. That
situation has not been satisfactorily solved. There is the
report that some are luminous, according to others, they
appear to be either a silver light or white disk. Whatever
they may be they are most certainly instruments for the
defense of a land, or for the extending of the power of the
military into the land of the occupied, and there is much to
indicate the experimental work is being carried on in the
United States.
The question as to why such experiments are permitted in
areas with considerable habitation, where there is the
possibility of one of these huge disks, some being two
hundred and fifty feet in diameter, falling to the earth,
injuring individuals, or destroying property, has caused a
number of speculations against it being developed here. It
seems we would be endangering our population in experimental
research. Yet most accounts report these devices contain some
means for their own annihilation. What this means is we are
not aware. As far as I know no one has seen one of them
disintegrate and break up. There has been no wreckage to
speak of, although one or two have reported it. That the
project may be in experimental stage and completely harmless
is also a possibility. That it is extremely light, having the
appearance of mass, but actually consisting of a small amount
of any heavy material is suggested by the type of research.
We have thought of it as containing motors and things of that
type, but no report has been made that any such motor power
has been used. It is possible the entire device in its
experimental stage is completely harmless, and even if it
should fall in a community would cause no more damage then a
little consternation. We must therefore assume it is in an
experimental stage and not equipped with whatever is intended
to be used as a device of offense or defense.
That some of them are comparatively small might indicate they
are involved in a new principle, either of motion or focus of
energy of some kind. That they have practical utility is
certain or else they would not be developed as a military
project. These things have to pass very extreme groups of
critics, scientists and research men before the army or navy
would adopt them, and their utility must be demonstrated, or
else a good probability of it, before the project begins. The
project seems to have been running for several years, but is
gradually emerging. The public mind does not seem to be
unnecessarily anxious, and from everything indicated, the
secret will soon be out.
But up to that time it is a very good example for those
persons who wish to be thoughtful to assume the attributes,
attitudes and policies of mature thinking, and show how
intelligent human beings can approach the unknown, and also
give those of a less stable and substantial type of mind an
opportunity to control their own thinking and escape from a
tendency toward the fantastic. If we approach these things
reasonably we shall generally be right; whereas, if we
approach them too dramatically we shall be wrong.
The device in all probability is some highly specialized
scientific structure intended to advance research. The device
itself may not be the project, but some means of testing for
something else, but whether it is a means to an end, or is
the end itself, it is almost certainly humanly guided,
humanly devised, and is being advanced in the unfoldment of
necessary research into the great and powerful potentials of
the planet. Beyond that I think we shall simply have to wait
until Uncle Sam decides to talk, and anyone who talks before
that would be doing every one concerned a great unkindness.
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