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From: aa440@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dale Wedge)
To: orphillips@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: NSA Analyst Considers UFOs
Reply-To: aa440@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dale Wedge)
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In a previous article, xx044 (UFOlogy SIG) says:

>     A FOIA document released by the National Security Agency 
>several years ago was titled, UFO HYPOTHESIS AND SURVIVAL 
>QUESTIONS was disclaimed by NSA as representing its official 
>position on UFOs, but it is nonetheless curious that this NSA 
>analyst's opinion has remained for so long in NSA's files.  It 
>is presented here in the hopes of beginning a general discussion 
>on sime of the implications raised therein.  The document 
>states:
>
>     " It is the purpose of this monograph to consider briefly 
>some of the human survival implications suggested by the various 
>principal hypotheses concerning the nature of the phenomena 
>loosely categorized as UFO.
>     1.  All UFOs Are Hoaxes.  From the time when hoaxes were 
>first noted in history, they were characterized by infrequency 
>of occurrence and usually by a considerable restriction of their 
>geographical extent.  Rarely have men of science, while acting 
>within their professional capacities, perpetrated hoaxes.  The 
>fact that UFO phenomena have been witnessed all over the world 
>from ancient times, and by considerable numbers of reputable 
>scientists in recent times, indicates rather strongly that UFOs 
>are not all hoaxes.  If anything, rather than diminishing, the 
>modern trend is toward increased reports, from all sources.  In 
>one three month period in 1953 (June, July and August) Air Force 
>records show 35 sightings whose nature could not be determined.  
>If UFOs, contrary to all indications and expectations, are 
>indeed hoaxes--hoaxes of a world wide dimension--hoaxes of 
>increasing frequency, then a human mental aberration of alarming 
>proportions would seem to be developing.  Such an aberration 
>would seem to have serious implications for nations equipped 
>with nuclear toys--and should require immediate and careful 
>study by scientists.
>     2.  All UFOs Are Hallucinations.  People, of course, do 
>hallucinate.  Although groups of people hallucinating is rare, 
>it has been known to happen.  Machines have their own form of 
>hallucination; the radar, in particular, 'sees' temperature 
>inversions.  But a considerable number of instances exist in 
>which there are groups of people and a radar or radars seeing 
>the same thing at the same time; sometimes a person and gun 
>camera confirm each other's testimony.  On occasion, physical 
>evidence of a circumstantial nature was reported to have been 
>found to support witnessed sightings.  A continuing high 
>percentage of reports of unusual aerial objects are being 
>reported by people in responsible positions in science, 
>government, and industry.  The sum of such evidence seems to 
>argue strongly against all UFOs being hallucinations.  In spite 
>of all the evidence to the contrary, if UFOs did turn out to be 
>largely illusionary, the psychological implications for man 
>would certainly bring into stong question his ability to 
>distinguish reality from fantasy.  The negative effect on man's 
>ability to survive in an increasingly complex world would be 
>considerable--making it imperative that such a growing 
>impairment of the human capacity for rational judgment be 
>subjected to immediate and thorough scientific study so that the 
>illness could be controlled before it reaches epidemic 
>proportions...
>     3.  All UFOs Are Natural Phenomena.  If this hypothesis is 
>correct, the capability of air warning systems to correctly 
>diagnose an attack situation is open to serious question.
>     a.  Many UFOs have been reported by trained military 
>     observers to behave like high speed, high performance, high 
>     altitude rockets or aircraft.  The apparent solidity and 
>     craft-like shape of the objects have often been subject to 
>     radar confirmation.  If such reports can appear to trained 
>     military men as rockets or aircraft and if such objects 
>     should come over the Arctic from the direction of Russia on 
>     the United States, they could trigger 'false reports of 
>     missle attacks.'
>     b.  Many responsible military officers have developed a 
>     mental 'blind spot' to objects which appear to have 
>     charachteristics of UFOs.  Such an attitude is an open 
>     invitation to the enemy to build a replica of the phenomena 
>     in order to penetrate the 'hole' in his adversary's 
>     defenses...
>     c.  Sometimes the phenomena appear to defy radar detection 
>     and to cause massive electromagnetic interference.  Surely 
>     it is very important to discover the nature of these 
>     objects or plasmas before any prospective enemy can use 
>     their properties to build a device or system to circumvent 
>     or jam our air and space detection systems--Any nation 
>     certainly could use a system or device to penetrate enemy 
>     defenses.--Was this the purpose of the lense shaped reentry 
>     vehicle tested by the USAF in 1960?
>     4.  Some UFOs Are Secret Earth Projects.  The above-
>referenced U.S. Air Force reenetry vehicle and an often 
>publicized Canadian 'saucer' project leave little doubt as to 
>the validity of this hypotheseis.  Undoubtedly, all UFOs should 
>be carefully scrutinized to ferret out such enemy (or 
>'friendly') projects.  Otherwise a nation faces the very strong 
>possibility of being intimidated by a new secret 'doomsday' 
>weapon.
>     5.  UFOs Are Related to Intra-terrestrial Intelligence.  
>According to some eminent scientists closely associated with the 
>study of this phenomenon, this hypothesis cannot be 
>disregarded.  (The well documented sightings over Washington, 
>D.C. in 1952 strongly support his view.)  This hypothesis has a 
>number of far-reaching human survival implications:
>     a.  If 'they' discover you, it is an old but hardly invalid 
>     rule of thumb, 'they' are your technological superiors.  
>     Human history has shown us time and again the tragic 
>     results of a confrontation between a technologically 
>     superior civilization and a technologically inferior 
>     people.  The 'inferior' is usually subject to physical 
>     conquest.
>     b.  Often in the past, a technologically superior people 
>     are also possessors of a more virile or aggressive 
>     culture.  In a confronttion between two peoples of 
>     significantly different culture levels, those having the 
>     inferior or less virile culture most often suffer a tragic 
>     loss of identity and are absorbed by the other people.
>     c.  Some peoples who were technologically and/or culturally 
>     inferior to other nations have survived--have maintained 
>     their identity--have equalized the differences between them 
>     and their adversaries.  The Japanese people have given us 
>     an excellent example of the methods required to achieve 
>     such survival:
>          (1)  full and honest acceptance of the nature of the 
>          inferiorities separating you from the advantages of 
>          the other peoples,    
>          (2)  complete national solidarity in all positions 
>          taken in dealing with the other culture,
>          (3)  highly controlled and limited intercourse with 
>          the other side--doing only those things advantageous 
>          to the foreigner which you are absolutely forced to do 
>          by the circumstances,
>          (4)  a correct but friendly attitude toward the other 
>          people,
>          (5)  a national eagerness to learn everything possible 
>          about the other citizens--its technological and 
>          cultural strengths and weaknesses.  This often 
>          involves sending selected groups and individuals to 
>          the other's country to become one of his kind, or even 
>          to help him in his wars against other adversaries,
>          (6)  Adopting as many of the advantages of the 
>          opposing people as you can, and doing it as fast as 
>          possible--while still protecting your own identity by 
>          molding each new knowledge increment into your own 
>          cultural cast.
>     6.  Comment:  Although this paper has hardly exhausted the 
>possible hypotheses related to the UFO phenomena, those 
>mentioned above are the principal ones presently put forward.  
>All of them have serious survival implications.  The final 
>answer to this mystery will probably include more than one of 
>the above hypotheses.
>     Up until this time, the leisurely scientific approach has 
>too often taken precedence in dealing with UFO questions.  If 
>you are walking along a forest path and someone yells 'rattler' 
>your reaction would be immediate and defensive.  You would not 
>take time to speculate before you act.  You would have to treat 
>the alarm as if it were a real and immediate threat to your 
>survival.  Investigation would become an intensive emergency 
>action to isolate the threat and to determine its precise 
>nature.  It would be geared to developing adequate defensive 
>measures in a minimum amount of time.  It would seem a little 
>more of this survival attitude is called for in dealing with the 
>UFO problem.
>     Observations of chimpanzees while in a captive environment 
>have shown that the animals tend to become confused and 
>disoriented.  Since they do not usually have adult chimps to 
>teach them how to be good apes, they are not even sure of their 
>behavior.  Often their actions are patterned after human 
>behavior and would have virtually no survival value in the 
>wild.  Lacking the challenge of environmental adaptation, the 
>bodies of the animals atrophy and become subject to may diseases-
>mostly unknown in their wild counterparts.  Reactions to 
>stimulus usually become less responsive and suitable.  Sex 
>becomes a year-long preoccupation instead of a seasonal madness.
>     Do the captivity characteristics of modern civilization 
>cause a similar lessening of man's adaptive capability, of his 
>health, of his ability to recognize reality, of his ability to 
>survive?
>     Perhaps the UFO question might even make man undertake 
>studies which could enable him to construct a society which is 
>most conducive to developing a completely HUMAN being, healthy 
>in all respects of mind and body and, most important, able to 
>recognize and adapt to real environmental situations.
>
>
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>individual problems should be obtained directly from a professional.
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