An Indispensable Book Yet To Be Written

An indispensable book yet to be written Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos This n ote is som ehow con n ected to m y ow n con cep tion an d p er son al ear ly w or k in ufology: the absolute r equir em en t to collect all scien tific in t e llige n ce o n UFOs , d is m is s in g t h e un accep table an d p ush in g p r ogr ess on w hat w as w ell-foun ded. To this p ur p ose, I p ublished b ib liogr ap hies. Mor e r e ce n t ly, I ha ve p ublished in the Fr en ch GEIPAN w ebsite a co m p r e h e n s ive b ib lio gr a p h y o n w o r k p er for m ed on UFO w aves. Others, p rofession al bibliogr ap her s, r eleased m assive com p ilation s of UFO-r elated essays an d in vestigation . But I saw this on ly as a fir st p hase of w hat should be don e. I alw ays en visaged an a c a d e m i c c o n t i n u a t i o n t o p r e p a r i n g b i b l i o g r a p h i e s s t r i c t l y o r i e n t e d t o scien tific-m in ded w or k on UFO r ep or ts: the an alysis of the best liter atur e by p r oficien t p er son n el. The follow in g r eflection outlin es this thin kin g. Don t get m e w r on g: it is far fr om w ishin g to debun k p e op le's p et theor ies. Everybody is fr ee to believe an ythin g. But, fr om m y p er sp ect ive, som ethin g em er ges clear as cr yst al. I ha ve r e ache d t he con viction , sustain ed by the facts, that ther e does n ot exist an y m ater ial p hen om en on in the flow of UFO r ep or ts w hich is n ew to scien ce, n othin g extr aor din ar y or p ar ap hysical has em er ged. It is un r eal in the p hysical sen se. It on ly exists as a sociological, an thr op ological, histor ical, cultur al con str uct. Physically sp eakin g, UFOs ar e but a m ir age. Seven decades of r ep or ts an d testim on ies an d even ts p r ove that ther e ar e n o un id e n t ifia b le flyin g m a ch in e s , it is a "p hen om en on " devoid of an y m ater ial p r oof. The histor y of ufology is the n ar r ation of 70 p lus year s of scien tific failur es. Sin ce the ear ly tim es w hen flyin g saucer s, then UFOs, later on UAPs r ose in to our cultur al sp ace, academ ics as well as scien tifically or ien ted am ateur s decided to ap p ly scien tific kn ow ledge in an attem p t to decip her the n atur e of the p hen om en on , how these allege d sp acecr aft could fly, w her e they cam e fr om, how they could be det ect ed, how they in ter acted w ith t he Ear th, how their activity fluctuated in an in t elligen t w ay, har d data that could be ext r acted fr om soft eyew itn ess testim on y, p att er n s hidden in the m ass of r ep or ts, con stan t featur es of UFO shap es an d behavior s, an d a lon g etceter a. The bottom lin e in all this w ell-in ten tion ed w or k has been to p r ove that UFOs w er e alien in or igin , show in g a techn ology or law s of p hysics for eign to our p lan et . After million s of so-called UFO claim s p r oduced all over the w or ld (as m an y cases as differ en t descr ip tion s), n ot a sin gle m ater ial tr ace of the actual p resence of extraterr estrial n avigator s in our air sp ace an d on the gr oun d has b een deliver ed. On the other han d, n ever theless, it has been m ade abun dan tly obvious that the vast m ajor ity of the hum an an d autom ated sightin gs ar e soluble in basically tr adition al ter m s. No exotic r ealm n eeds t o be p ostulated to exp lain the r aw case r ep or ts. Ther efor e, a m edia-stim ulated m yth in p r ogr ess) em er ges as a fun dam en tal, emp ir ical solution to the UFO Then , w hat to do w ith all the p r op osa ls m a de p ub lic in r e ce n t UFO hist or y? A r e al en cyclop edia of bad scien ce can be er ected up on books an d ar ticle s an d p ap er s (som e of t h e m p u b lis h e d in s cie n t ific jo u r n a ls ) exhibitin g r em ar kable er r or s in for mulation , m ethodology, an d tw isted m an ip ulation of cer tain theor ies, hyp otheses, techn iques, or ap p r oaches. Miscalculation s, flaw ed statist ics (GIGO), false assum p tion s an d w or se develop m en t, w ild hyp ot heses on m otion , flight p att er n s an d cap abilities, fantasized p rop ulsion theor ies, etc. Ufology has cr eated all sor ts of scien tific m on ster s in the for m of factual er r or s an d w r on g ap p lication of m athem atical, statist ical, p hysics, en gin eer in g, electr ical, m agn etic, or gr avitation al p r in cip les, w hen n ot p lain ly p seudoscien ce. Un iver sal cultur e n eeds a cr itical t hin ker (m ain ly a p hysicist) w ho is able to m ake a syn thesis of all those w or ks disr egar ded by the histor y of scien ce, n ever to be r ecogn ized by t he m ain str eam scien tific estab lishm en t. Not disr egar ded for bein g too audacious for an ep och, but for bein g m isguided, lost an d off base. I can im agin e an an n otated catalog of scien tific falsehoods in ufology, p laced in a histor ical con text of vogues an d tr en ds an d w aves, disclosin g how p er son al belief sp oiled p oten tial discover ies, n ot as sen sation al as those p r om ised but m uch m or e r ea listic an d down to Ear th. Acknowledgement I thank History professor Greg Eghigian for discussing the topic with me. (1) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "Science and UFOs: A Selected Bibliography of UFO Research Papers," DATA-NET, July 1972, pages 6-9, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_61_1972.pdf and March 1973, pages 4-5, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_69_1973.pdf (2) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "A List of References on Formal Methods and Speculations for the Automatic Detection of UFO Phenomena," DATA-NET, June 1972, pages 10-11, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_60_1972.pdf and March 1973, page 5, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_69_1973.pdf (3) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "Census of Technical Works and Discussions Directly Related to the UFO Propulsion Problem", DATA-NET, August 1972, pages 7-8, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_62_1972.pdf and March 1973, page 5, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_69_1973.pdf (4) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "Index of Articles about UFOs and Geophysics", DATA-NET, September 1972, page 2, http://www.cufos.org/Data-Net/Data_Net_63_1972.pdf (5) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "Bibliografa sobre propulsin de los OVNIS," Stendek, 28, June 1977, pages 14-16, https://tinyurl.com/y89rjkt3 (6) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "Aids to the UFO Investigator: A Bibliography," The MUFON UFO Journal, October (7) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "UFO Research Bibliography," UPIAR Research in Progress, Vol. 1:1, 1982, pages. 48-54; (8) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, "UFO Waves: An International Bibliography," November 2015, http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/typo3conf/ext/dam_frontend/pushfile.php?docID=11383 (9) Lynn E. Catoe, UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography (Library of Congress/Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.), 1969. (10) Martin H. Sable, Exobiology: A Research Guide (Green Oak Press, Brighton, Michigan), 1978. (11) George M. Eberhart, A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies, Greenwood Press (Westport, Connecticut), 1980. (12) George M. Eberhart, UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: A Bibliography. Volume One: Unidentified Flying Objects ( The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey), 1986. (13) George M. Eberhart, UFOs and the Extraterrestrial Contact Movement: A Bibliography. Volume Two: The Extraterrestrial Contact Movement ( The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey), 1986. (14) What follows is just a sample of references on books displaying scientific error ranging from speculative and inaccurate science to wishful thinking, or concepts and theories dismissed by the academia. Leonard G. Cramp, Space, Gravity and the Flying Saucer, British Book Centre (New York), 1955. Jean Plantier, La propulsion des soucoupes volantes par action directe sur l'atome, Maison Mame, 1955. Aim Michel, Flying Saucers and the Straight-Line Mystery, S.G. Phillips (New York), 1958. Leonard G. Cramp, Piece for a Jig-Saw, Sir Joseph Causton and Sons (London), 1967. Bruce L. Cathie, Harmonic 33, A.H. & A.W. Reed (Wellington), 1968. Eugene Burt, UFOs and Diamagnetism, Exposition Press (Jericho), 1970. James McCampbell, Ufology, Jaymac Company (Belmont), 1973. F. Arjula, Hacia una fsica de los OVNIS, 1973. Yvan Bozzonetti, La propulsion des soucoupes volantes. nigme rsolue? UGEPI-OURANOS (Bohain), 1975. Trevor James Constable, The Cosmic Pulse of Life, Merlin Press (Santa Ana), 1976. Michael A. Persinger & Gyslaine F. Lafrenire, Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events, Nelson-Hall (Chicago), 1977. Bruce L. Cathie, The Pulse of the Universe, A.H. & A.W. Reed (Wellington), 1977. Maurice G. de San, Hypothesis on the UFO Origin, Editecs (Bologna), 1978. Karl Brunstein, Beyond the Four Dimensions, Walker Publishing Co. (New York), 1979. Thomas E. Bearden, Excalibur Briefing, Strawberry Hill Press (San Francisco), 1980. Jean-Charles Fumoux, Preuves scientifiques OVNI : L'Isoclie, ditions du Rocher (Paris), 1981. Alexandre Laugier, Dtection du Phnomne OVNI en France, 1982. Berthold E. Schwarz, UFO Dynamics-Books I and II, Rainbow Books (Moore Haven), 1983. John Ackerman, To Catch a Flying Star, Univelt, Inc. (San Diego), 1989. Jean-Pierre Petit, Enqute sur les OVNI, Albin Michel (Paris), 1990. Paul R. Hill, Unconventional Flying Objects: a Scientific Analysis, Hampton Roads Publishing Co. (Charlottesville), 1995. http://fotocat.blogspot.com/2020_03_13 _archive.html