ISCNI President and News Editor Michael LIndemann was there as an invited speaker. Following is his summary of several of the best symposium presentations.
Charles Emmons, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Gettysburg College, spoke on "The Ufology Experience: Daring to Study UFOs." He said that Ufology has generally been defined as a deviant science since the infamous Condon report of 1969. Consequently, there is little public support for UFO studies in academe. Lack of funding prevents astronomers and many other scientists from taking ufology seriously, despite a surprisingly widespread acceptance of the idea that UFOs deserve scientific study. Many active ufologists have advanced degrees and follow accepted research protocols, yet feel the need to hide their UFO involvement from academic associates. Emmons said he himself had felt this negative pressure, as had many other prominent academic proponents of UFO study such as Prof. John Salter, Prof. Leo Sprinkle, Prof. David Jacobs and Prof. John Mack.
Karl T. Pflock, professional writer of both fiction and non-fiction, former CIA agent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and long-time UFO researcher and enthusiast (very active in NICAP in the 1960s), spoke on "Roswell, a Cautionary Tale: Facts and Fantasies, Lessons and Legacies." Pflock has recently become prominent in Roswell discussions since the April 1994 publication of his monograph, "Roswell In Perspective," in which he argued that the wreckage found by Mac Brazel on the Foster ranch in July, 1947 was neither a weather balloon nor a flying saucer, but a very large, complex and top-secret balloon array called Project Mogul. In September of 1994, the U.S. Air Force issued a public report stating that the wreckage found on the ranch was (probably) from a Project Mogul balloon, leaving many UFO researchers with the feeling that Pflock had either knowingly or unwittingly given the "official UFO cover-up" a new lease on life.
But interestingly, Pflock thinks there is still a "real secret" about Roswell, because he gives strong credence to the testimony of Glenn Dennis concerning strange, small bodies and perhaps some other strange wreckage found at a site some distance from the ranch. Pflock thinks the discovery of the ranch wreckage might have been purely coincidental in relation to a far more secret discovery of the bodies and, perhaps, a downed object from space.
However, the main point of Pflock's talk was that many mistakes of evidence, interpretation and wishful thinking have clouded the Roswell investigation; and that if Ufology is to be taken seriously, it is necessary to admit and stop repeating mistakes, as well as to expose people who are doing bad and even deceptive research.
Katharina Wilson has lifelong conscious memories of encounters with other beings. Her 1994 book "Alien Jigsaw" contains 119 explicit journal entries of her abductions and other encounter experiences, along with 59 of her own drawings of the various beings she has seen. CNI News is pleased to note that Katharina is a new member of ISCNI and has agreed to offer occasional online discussions of her experiences and insights into the abduction phenomenon.
At the symposium, her talk focused on the varieties of beings she has experienced, including four distinct types of "grays" ranging in height from barely three feet to over seven feet, as well as several distinctly human-looking types and a variety of apparent hybrids. Katharina emphasized that various alien types use "camoflage" to mask their true appearance, and that a large factor in abduction scenarios seems to involve teaching. She also stressed that she had had, as of 1992, at least 14 experiences involving (human) military or government personnel who clearly were well aware of the alien situation on earth.
Katharina concluded her talk by saying, "The alien-human hybridization program is only the tip of the iceberg. As someone who has experienced this phenomenon firsthand, I believe we are witnessing an ongoing process involving the evolution of Homo Sapiens. A possible outcome may be the development of a new type of being who has human characteristics and can exist in a higher dimension...
"Ladies and gentlemen, that change is here, and it is time for us to make a choice. Do we live in fear of ridicule because science teaches that we are mentally ill if we believe in aliens? Do we live with fear and guilt because religion teaches us that if we would exercise our free will, then Satan's workers -- the aliens -- wouldn't have control over our soul? Or, do we choose to face the unknown through the wonderment and open-mindedness that exists in the mind of a child?... For all we know about it, the UFO phenomenon may simply be a vehicle for human evolution, and a way for us to discover ourselves and the incredible universe in which we exist."
Among the other excellent presentations at the symposium were:
"Developing a Catalog of UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects," by John F. Schuessler;
"Ufology in the Great White North," an account of several remarkable cases from Canada including a possible UFO crash that could rival Roswell in terms of detail, by Michael J. Strainic; and
"Spaceships of the Pleiades: The Billy Meier Story," by researcher Kal Korff, who showed impressive evidence that Swiss contactee Billy Meier could have hoaxed all of his famous photos.
In "The USAF-Sponsored Colorado Project for the Scientific Study of UFOs," Prof. Michael Swords gave a detailed description of the notorious Condon Report (to be further discussed in a forthcoming book), showing that Condon's biased and unscientific approach to the project was even more disgraceful than previously assumed.
And Linda Moulton Howe gave a graphic and disturbing presentation of recent research into animal mutilations, which continue unabated and largely unexplained year after year. Linda is convinced the mutilations are the work of non-human intelligence, and her symposium talk broached the distinct possibility that this intelligence is "neither benign nor neutral," a characterization she says she has heard from government-related sources.
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