1.
UFOs:
Michael M. Hughes!
StrangeCon 1 • April 27, 2014!
michaelmhughes.com
The Reality of the Impossible

2.
Subjective Experiences
A friend claims to have seen a disc-shaped, metallic
object in the sky making seemingly-impossible
maneuvers before flying off at an incredible speed.
He/she is reliable, not on drugs, and
not pulling your leg.

3.
Now imagine 10 friends tell you the same story.
Then a hundred friends.
Then thousands.
Then tens of thousands of trustworthy people
telling you the same incredible story of
what they saw in the sky.

4.
William James
“If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black,
you mustn’t seek to show that no crows are; it is enough
if you prove one single crow to be white.”

5.
The Reality of the Impossible
One of the most important subjects in human history?
With ramifications for science, religion,
cosmology, anthropology . . .
!
OR . . .

6.
The Critics/Skeptics/Debunkers
No evidence.
Photos/videos are all blurry/hoaxes.
Lack of credible observers (pilots, astronomers, astronauts).
“UFOs are usually observed by untrained sky watchers and almost never
by professional or amateur astronomers, people who spend inordinate
amounts of time observing the heavens above.”
—The Skeptic’s Dictionary (skeptic.com)
Witnesses are hicks/deluded/misidentifying natural
phenomena.
The government has studied the phenomenon
and concluded there’s nothing to it, you conspiracy nut!
!

7.
The Critics/Skeptics/Debunkers
Why don’t they just land on the White House lawn?
!
!
!
Well . . .
July 12-29, 1952
Washington, DC

8.
Washington, DC Flap of 1952
Visual sighting by a pilot and
stewardess flying into D.C.
Radar confirmation at National
Airport and Andew’s Air Force
Base
Master Sergeant at Andrews
(visual): “Shooting stars with no
tails . . . faster than any shooting star
I have ever seen.”

9.
Washington, DC Flap of 1952
Albert M. Chop, Press Officer for
Project Blue Book arrives and
refuses to allow reporters to
photograph radar screens.
He then sequestered himself with
radar personnel.
Radar picked up unknowns in every
sector, moving at variable speeds up
to 7,000mph.

10.
Washington, DC Flap of 1952
Air Force jets are scrambled.
Four glowing objects surrounded
one of the pilots. When he asked
the control tower what to do, the
answer was “stunned silence.”
The four objects then sped away
and vanished.
!

11.
Washington, DC Flap of 1952
Civilians and military personnel
saw not just lights, but metallic
disc-shaped objects (structured
crafts).
President Truman demanded an
explanation from the Air Force and
the head of Blue Book.
Several reports indicated the White
House had given “shoot down”
orders, but the pilots had been
unable to get close enough.

12.
Washington, DC Flap of 1952
On July 29 the Air Force held a
press conference—the largest since
WWII.
Air Force explanation:
misidentification of natural
phenomena (stars, meteors) along
with a temperature inversion.
Air Force personnel, air traffic
controllers, and dozens of others
went on the record to protest the
“impossible”explanation.

13.
DECEMBER 2 1952!
!
THRU: DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR
INTELLIGENCE!
!
SUBJECT: UNIDENTIFIED FLYING
OBJECTS!
!
Excerpt:!
!
“At this time, the reports of
incidents convince us that there is
something going on which must have
immediate attention . . . Sightings
of unexplained objects at great
altitudes and traveling at high
speeds in the vicinity of major
U.S. defense installations are of
such nature that they are not
attributable to natural phenomena
or known types of aerial vehicles.”!
!

14.
July 27, 2002, Washington Post
F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region
WASHINGTON -- For Renny Rogers, it was strange enough that military jets were flying low
over his home in Waldorf in the middle of the night. It was what he thinks he saw when he headed
outside to look early yesterday that floored him.
“It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed,”Rogers said.
“This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I
told my neighbor,‘I think those jets are chasing a UFO.’”
Military officials say they do not know just what the jets were chasing, because whatever it was
disappeared. "There are any number of scenarios, but we don't know what it was," said Maj. Barry
Venable, another spokesman for NORAD.
Radar detected a low, slow-flying aircraft about 1 a.m. yesterday, according to a military official.
Controllers were unable to establish radio communication with the unidentified aircraft, and
NORAD was notified. When the F-16s carrying air-to-air missiles were launched from Andrews,
the unidentified aircraft's track faded from the radar, the military official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
…
Rogers remains convinced that what he saw was not routine. “It looked like a shooting star with no
trailing mist,” he said. “I've never seen anything like it.”
!

15.
A Curious Phenomenon

16.
Astronomer Henry Harrison of Jersey City observed a glowing circular
shaped object.The object had a very high altitude and, according to his
calculations based on other stars and the earth’s rotation, was moving at an
enormous speed.
He watched it for the better part of three hours when suddenly it sharply
changed its direction. Harrison made additional measurements and
observations later that night and quickly ruled out Brorsen’s comet after
the object disappeared (comets don’t disappear).
He was a member in good standing with the Toronto Astronomical
Society.The next day he sent a telegram to the US Naval Observatory in
Washington, DC.The director of the observatory ignored his report.

17.
Angry and surprised, he wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Tribune,
which was given the headline “A Curious Phenomenon.”His account of the
anomalous object was also published in Scientific American.
Harrison was mocked by his peers for “sloppy scientific reporting.” The critics
said he had simply misidentified Brorsen’s Comet (which he had been careful to
rule out).
Henry Harrison would ultimately get peer validation from two other
astronomers, who independently confirmed what he had seen and described.
One of them described the object as circular and bell-shaped and clearly moving
under intelligent control.

18.
April 13,
1879

19.
Kenneth
Arnold

20.
Curious Photos

21.
CGI Killed UFO Photos

22.
Loch Raven Dam
October 26, 1958
11:30pm

23.
Tehran, Iran
1976

24.
Tehran, Iran
1976

25.
Defense Intelligence Agency Report by
Air Force Major Colonel Roland Evans
October 12, 1976
An outstanding report: this case is a classic which meets
all the criteria for a valid study of UFO phenomena.!
!
The object was seen by multiple witnesses from
different locations and viewpoints!
The credibility of many of the witnesses was high (an
Air Force General, qualified aircrews and experienced
tower operators)!
Visual sightings were confirmed by radar!
Similar electromagnetic effects were reported by three
separate aircraft!
There were physiological effects on some crew members
(i.e., loss of night vision due to the brightness of
the object)!
An inordinate amount of maneuverability was displayed
by the UFOs!
!

26.
Debunker Phil Klass’s explanation?
!

27.
A string of the nation’s supersensitive nuclear missile launch sites and
bomber bases were visited by unidentified low-flying and elusive objects.
In several instances, after base security had been penetrated, the Air
Force sent fighter planes and airborne command planes aloft to carry on
the unsuccessful pursuit.
—Washington Post, 1979, reporting on declassified Defense Dept. reports

28.
United Kingdom,
2013
A320 airbus
Broad daylight, July 19, 2013
20 miles from Heathrow
cruising at 34,000 feet
!
Captain saw a “cigar/rugby-ball”
shaped object, bright silver and
metallic
Was so scared it was going to
crash he ducked
Reported the incident to aviation
authorities
No weather balloons, too high for
toy balloons

29.
Deception and Coverup

30.
“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air
Force officers are soberly concerned about
the UFOs . . .
But through official secrecy and ridicule,
many citizens are led to believe the
unknown flying objects are nonsense,” the
retired admiral said. He charged that “to
hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced
its personnel” through the issuance of a
regulation.
AIR FORCE ORDER ON ‘SAUCERS’CITED
Pamphlet by the Inspector General Called Objects a
‘Serious Business’
The New York Times, Feb. 27, 1960
Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter,
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1947-1950)

31.
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is
a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals
intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the British
government and armed forces.

32.
Originally the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS)

33.
Edward Snowden leaks revealed:
Eavesdropping on politicians at G20 Summit and UN delegates.
Covertly installing key loggers on UN delegates’s computers.
Feeding covert information to select UK politicians.

34.
Edward Snowden leaks revealed:
Project “Tempora” (surveillance.)
GCHQ can tap into US PRISM surveillance program, which has
access to Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Skype.

35.
Edward Snowden leaks revealed:
Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG)

36.
1999 Roper Poll
What are UFOs?
25% - Alien spaceships
19% - misinterpretations of normal phenomena
12% - Secret government programs
9% - Hallucinations
7% - Travelers from other dimensions
1997 Gallup Poll
80% - Government is hiding evidence
of extraterrestrial life

37.
The Extraterrestrial
Hypothesis

38.
The Universe as a factory for life

39.
Cosmic water bearers

40.
The “Oz Factor”

41.
The “Oz Factor”
Term coined by British investigator
Jenny Randles
UFO witnesses often feel they have
been transported to another world
during their experiences
The consciousness of the witness is the focal
point of the experience

42.
High Strangeness
Poltergeist activity
Interference with electronic and
mechanical devices
Development of psychic abilities
Coincidence/synchronicities
Unusual phone calls
MIB/helicopters

43.
...a global phenomenon ... so strange and
foreign to our daily terrestrial mode of
thought... it carries with it many
implications of the existence of
intelligences other than our own ... [It]
bespeaks the action of some form of
intelligence... but whence this intelligence
springs, whether it is truly extraterrestrial,
or bespeaks a higher reality not yet
recognized by science, or even if it be in
some way or another a strange psychic
manifestation of our own intelligence, is
much the question.
—J. Allen Hynek
Speech to U.N., 1978

44.
Not only is the
phenomenon or technology
capable of manipulating
space and time in ways that
we don’t understand, it’s
manipulating the psychic
environment of the witness.
—Jacques Vallee

45.
I tried to introduce that idea when I wrote "Invisible
College." At that time, the UFO community was not
ready for it.The New Age and the parapsychology
communities interpreted my conclusion to mean that
UFOs are devas from the dream world—that they are
not physical, or that the physical aspect is
unimportant. In truth, I think we are dealing with
something that is both technological and psychic, and
seems to be able to manipulate other dimensions.
This is neither wishful thinking nor personal
speculation on my part. It's a conclusion that comes
from interviewing critical witnesses, and then listening
to what they have to say. And what they have to say is
not that they've seen space craft coming down from
the sky and then returning to the sky.
—Jacques Vallee

46.
“. . .The phenomenon is indeed a real manifestation in a physical
sense. . . . We are dealing with physical objects that interact with
their environment through the emission of light and other
electromagnetic radiation, through mechanical and thermal effects,
and through psychophysiological changes in the witnesses who are
in close proximity to the phenomenon. . . .
The believer’s mistake is to ascribe meaning and credence to the
secondary perception, the mental image created by our brains to
account for the stimulus.The skeptic’s mistake is to deny the reality
of the stimulus altogether, simply because the secondary perception
seems absurd to him or her.
What we take to be reality my, in fact, be a mere appearance, or
projection, onto the ‘screen’ of our four-dimensional space-time
world from a much more complex, multidimensional, more
fundamental reality.”
Real progress lies between the two equally close-minded attitudes of
the believer or the skeptic.
—Jacques Vallee

47.
We can . . . believe our informants
[about their experience anomalies]
without having to believe their
explanations.
—Jerome Clark
Fortean Times, 2008

48.
1990

49.
Several weeks later

50.
1990

51.
?Dream (precognitive?)
Sand sculpture
synchronicity
Invitation:
“Show Yourselves.”
The Lights appear.

52.
As to your beach incident, my
question is, who set that up?
Did you ask for the aerial show
or were the alien face and your
presence there that night just
parts of a scenario in which you,
unknowingly, were helplessly
following their script?
—Budd Hopkins
Personal communication

53.
Incommensurability, Orthodoxy, and the Physics of High
Strangeness: A 6-Layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena
Jacques F. Vallee and Eric W. Davis
Porto, October 2003

54.
Vallee: I think that’s exactly what we
have to do with UFOs. We have to do
something that will cause them to
react. And I don’t mean building
landing strips in the desert and waiting
out there to welcome the space
brothers.
!
Clark: But what do you mean?

55.
Vallee: I hesitate to be too specific. I’m
speaking, as I’m sure you know, of the
attempted manipulation of UFO
manifestations.
!
There are certain occult groups who
claim they can invoke or evoke beings
that do some of the things UFO
entities do. I’ve looked. I’ve contacted a
number of these groups….

56.
Aleister Crowley
!
The
Great
Beast

57.
!
LAM

58.
Wilson: Where do you
think they come from?
You must have a hunch.
!
Vallee:They relate to
space-time in ways for
which we have, at
present, no concepts.

59.
Wilson then asked occultist
Grady McMurty if Aleister
Crowley had ever mentioned
the extraterrestrial theory.
!
McMurty: Some of the
things [he] said could be
interpreted . . . that way.
[They] don’t always have to
be summoned. When you’re
ready, they come for you.

60.
We are part of a symbiotic relationship
with something which disguises itself
as an extraterrestrial invasion so as not
to alarm us.
—Terence McKenna

61.
It’s important to abolish
the unconscious
dogmatism that makes
people think their way
of looking at reality is
the only sane way of
viewing the world.
!
—Robert Anton
Wilson

62.
The fate of all
explanation is to
close one door only
to have another fly
wide open.
!
—Charles Fort

63.
KNOW

64.
!
!
!
!
“The American people—and people around the
world—want to know [about UFOs], and they can
handle the truth."
John Podesta
former White House Chief of
Staff (Clinton), Co-Chairman
of the Obama/Biden
transition team
!
from the foreword to Leslie
Keane’s UFOs: Generals, Pilots,
and Government Officials Go
on the Record

65.
Thank you!
michaelmhughes.com
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Twitter @michaelmhughes