I am delighted to have been invited by Sir Eric Gairy and the
Grenada Mission to speak to this committee on behalf of many of
my scientific colleagues about the subject of Unidentified
Flying Objects. Many years ago, in conversation with His
Excellency, U Thant, I was informed by him that protocol
demanded that a member nation first bring a subject up in the
General Assembly before any action on that subject could be
initiated.
Now, many years later, one of the smallest nations on the Earth
has courageously introduced the perplexing subject of UFOs to
the General Assembly, and thus made possible this meeting today.
I commend the initiative his excellency Sir Eric Gairy has
taken; he has trod where mightier nations have feared to tread.
Mr. Chairman, there exists today a world-wide phenomenon...
indeed if it were not world-wide I should not be addressing you
and these representatives from many parts of the world. There
exists a global phenomenon the scope and extent of which is not
generally recognized. It is a phenomenon so strange and foreign
to our daily terrestrial mode of thought that it is frequently
met by ridicule and derision by persons and organizations
unacquainted with the facts. Yet, the phenomenon persists; it
has not faded away as many of us expected it would when, years
ago, we regarded it as a passing fad or whimsy. Instead, it has
touched on the lives of an increasing number of people around
the world.
I refer, of course, to the phenomenon of UFOs... Unidentified
Flying Objects... which I should like to define here simply
as “any aerial or surface sighting, or instrumental recording
(e.g., radar, photography, etc.) which remains unexplained by
conventional methods even after competent examination by
qualified persons.
You will note, Mr. Chairman, that this definition says nothing
about little green men from outer space, or manifestations from
spiritual realms, or various psychic manifestations. It simply
states an operational definition. A cardinal mistake, and a
source of great confusion, has been the almost universal
substitution of an interpretation of the UFO phenomenon for the
phenomenon itself.
This is akin to having ascribed the Aurora Borealis to angelic
communication before we understood the physics of the solar
wind.
Nonetheless, in the popular mind the UFO phenomenon is
associated with the concept of extra-terrestrial intelligence
and this might yet prove to be correct in some context. Surely
it would be a huge joke on all of us should it develop that
evidence for extra-terrestrial intelligence was right here under
our noses all the time while great effort was spent searching
for it elsewhere!
But I repeat and emphasize, Mr. Chairman, that the global
phenomenon of UFO reports, reports frequently made by highly
responsible persons, is not yet understood. Yet it is a
phenomenon that has claimed the interest and attention of
millions of people. In the United States alone, the Gallup Poll
has not only shown a remarkably high awareness on the part of
the public of the UFO subject, but indicates that 57% of the
U.S. population... thus well over a hundred million persons...
believe that UFOs are real and not a figment of the imagination.
The terms Flying Saucers and UFOs now appear in the dictionaries
of many countries... itself a sure sign of the popular
awareness. Thus we have the terms:
O.V.N.I.-Objetos Voladores Non ldentificados in the Latin
American countries and Spain Soucoupe Volante in France
Fliegende Untertasen in Germany Letaiici Talire in Czech And so
on in a host of other languages.
The subject is truly in the minds of many peoples. Indeed,
according to our records UFOCAT UFO reports have been assembled
from 133 different countries! as you probably already have noted
from the material furnished you.
I must also emphasize here, Mr. Chairman, that were it so that
these reports, albeit their global nature, were solely generated
by irresponsible and ignorant persons, I should not be here this
morning. The facts are quite otherwise: UFO reports in
significant numbers have been made by highly responsible
persons, to wit: astronauts, radar experts, military and
commercial pilots... many, many of these... officials of
governments, and scientists, even including astronomers!
We have on record many tens of thousands of UFO reports. Even
granting that by no means all of these are of high quality, they
include extremely intriguing and provocative accounts of strange
events experienced by highly reputable persons... events which
challenge our present conception of the world about us and which
may indeed signal a need for a change in some of these
concepts... a point brought out some time ago in a radio
broadcast to the French nation by the then Minister of Defense,
M. Robert Galley, stressing the importance of investigating the
truly unknown.
Grenada Mission to speak to this committee on behalf of many of
my scientific colleagues about the subject of Unidentified
Flying Objects. Many years ago, in conversation with His
Excellency, U Thant, I was informed by him that protocol
demanded that a member nation first bring a subject up in the
General Assembly before any action on that subject could be
initiated.
Now, many years later, one of the smallest nations on the Earth
has courageously introduced the perplexing subject of UFOs to
the General Assembly, and thus made possible this meeting today.
I commend the initiative his excellency Sir Eric Gairy has
taken; he has trod where mightier nations have feared to tread.
Mr. Chairman, there exists today a world-wide phenomenon...
indeed if it were not world-wide I should not be addressing you
and these representatives from many parts of the world. There
exists a global phenomenon the scope and extent of which is not
generally recognized. It is a phenomenon so strange and foreign
to our daily terrestrial mode of thought that it is frequently
met by ridicule and derision by persons and organizations
unacquainted with the facts. Yet, the phenomenon persists; it
has not faded away as many of us expected it would when, years
ago, we regarded it as a passing fad or whimsy. Instead, it has
touched on the lives of an increasing number of people around
the world.
I refer, of course, to the phenomenon of UFOs... Unidentified
Flying Objects... which I should like to define here simply
as “any aerial or surface sighting, or instrumental recording
(e.g., radar, photography, etc.) which remains unexplained by
conventional methods even after competent examination by
qualified persons.
You will note, Mr. Chairman, that this definition says nothing
about little green men from outer space, or manifestations from
spiritual realms, or various psychic manifestations. It simply
states an operational definition. A cardinal mistake, and a
source of great confusion, has been the almost universal
substitution of an interpretation of the UFO phenomenon for the
phenomenon itself.
This is akin to having ascribed the Aurora Borealis to angelic
communication before we understood the physics of the solar
wind.
Nonetheless, in the popular mind the UFO phenomenon is
associated with the concept of extra-terrestrial intelligence
and this might yet prove to be correct in some context. Surely
it would be a huge joke on all of us should it develop that
evidence for extra-terrestrial intelligence was right here under
our noses all the time while great effort was spent searching
for it elsewhere!
But I repeat and emphasize, Mr. Chairman, that the global
phenomenon of UFO reports, reports frequently made by highly
responsible persons, is not yet understood. Yet it is a
phenomenon that has claimed the interest and attention of
millions of people. In the United States alone, the Gallup Poll
has not only shown a remarkably high awareness on the part of
the public of the UFO subject, but indicates that 57% of the
U.S. population... thus well over a hundred million persons...
believe that UFOs are real and not a figment of the imagination.
The terms Flying Saucers and UFOs now appear in the dictionaries
of many countries... itself a sure sign of the popular
awareness. Thus we have the terms:
O.V.N.I.-Objetos Voladores Non ldentificados in the Latin
American countries and Spain Soucoupe Volante in France
Fliegende Untertasen in Germany Letaiici Talire in Czech And so
on in a host of other languages.
The subject is truly in the minds of many peoples. Indeed,
according to our records UFOCAT UFO reports have been assembled
from 133 different countries! as you probably already have noted
from the material furnished you.
I must also emphasize here, Mr. Chairman, that were it so that
these reports, albeit their global nature, were solely generated
by irresponsible and ignorant persons, I should not be here this
morning. The facts are quite otherwise: UFO reports in
significant numbers have been made by highly responsible
persons, to wit: astronauts, radar experts, military and
commercial pilots... many, many of these... officials of
governments, and scientists, even including astronomers!
We have on record many tens of thousands of UFO reports. Even
granting that by no means all of these are of high quality, they
include extremely intriguing and provocative accounts of strange
events experienced by highly reputable persons... events which
challenge our present conception of the world about us and which
may indeed signal a need for a change in some of these
concepts... a point brought out some time ago in a radio
broadcast to the French nation by the then Minister of Defense,
M. Robert Galley, stressing the importance of investigating the
truly unknown.
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