UFOs: Bits and Pieces: Name Dropping

With both the existence of pure theory and applied evidence supporting the plausibility of the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) – where the UFO remains a UFO after appropriate expert analysis has failed to find a more terrestrial explanation – lets look at a few snippets of the phenomena, this time naming some of the pro-UFO (as a serious scientific issue) people who have had first hand and hands-on experiences with UFOs.   

Given that a large percentage of the population of developed nations believe that there is something to the UFO subject beyond UFOs being just ‘silly-season’ fodder for the tabloids, it’s not surprising that a lot of household names would be among them. However, just because you’re famous as an actor or musician or politician or industrialist, etc. doesn’t by itself translate into having any more credibility when speaking out on the UFO subject vis-à-vis any old Jane Doe private citizen. However, there are some people who have had a more direct relationship with the subjects. While police and pilots and other qualified and trained observers of UFOs have credibility, they aren’t household names. In short, fame has nothing to do with UFO credibility. When I refer to ‘name dropping’, I mean naming people who, when it comes to the UFO as a credible scientific subject, have the runs on the board and have to be taken seriously by the UFO sceptics.

There are physical and other scientists with professional academic qualifications, who took (or take) the UFOs in general and often the UFO ETH (extraterrestrial hypothesis) question in particular very seriously. Scientists and academics like J. Allen Hynek (scientific advisor the USAF Project Blue Book who later founded to Center for UFO Studies), James E. McDonald, Berthold E. Schwarz (M.D.), John E. Mack (M.D.), Michael Swords, Ron Westrum, Jacques Vallee, Bruce Maccabee, David M. Jacobs, Thomas E. Bullard, Karla Turner, Stanton Friedman, Frank B. Salisbury, Ivan T. Sanderson, and Richard F. Haines. I could extend the list, but you get the gist.

I should also point out that both the former heads of the USAF Project Blue Book (Edward J. Ruppelt) and the British Dept. of Defence UFO study (Nick Pope) wrote books detailing their experiences, and both took the subject very seriously indeed.

Then there are former NASA astronauts like Gordon Cooper and Edgar Mitchell who have come out in no uncertain terms that the UFO ETH is not only plausible, but beyond doubt.

There’s also a host of top military officers who have given credibility to the subject. One such notable was Barry Goldwater, better known as a politician and presidential candidate; he was also a USAF general officer.

For every well known UFO debunker or sceptic, there’s an equal and opposite pro-UFO (as in UFOs are serious business) counterpart. In fact, based on my own four decades of serious interest in this field, I’ve noted that there have been far more sceptics turned UFO believers (though not of necessity a believer in the ETH), than the other way around.