by Michael E. Salla, PhD
December 15, 2004
The study of the UFO phenomenon has long
been dominated by researchers whose primary backgrounds have been in
the natural sciences such as Astronomy, Physics, Engineering,
Aviation, etc. Donald Keyhoe, Allen Hynek, Edward Ruppelt, and
Stanton Friedman are some examples of distinguished UFOlogists whose
competence in these fields have been a chief characteristic of their
careers and have won the admiration of many in the field of Ufology.
The methodologies used by ’Ufologists’ in general has been to
rigorously use their professional training to work through UFO
reports, photographic evidence, FOIA documents, witness testimonies,
archival records, etc., to reach some agreement as to what can be
known with reasonable certainty regarding UFO related evidence and
the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH).
Ufologists view their research as consistent with natural scientific
standards which they aggressively defend against the skepticism and
dismissive attitudes thrown towards them by the scientific community
in general. Winning the respect of mainstream scientists by using
methodologies appropriated from the natural sciences to produce top
quality research that stands the scrutiny of critics and skeptics
has been an important goal of Ufologists. In adhering to this high
standard of natural science methodology, Ufologists tend to be
parsimonious and in turn are dismissive of controversial sources of
evidentiary material, or evidence that can’t be substantiated using
the scientific standards promoted by Ufologists. This can be lauded
since gaining scientific acceptance for the rigorous research of
anomalous phenomena that substantiates the ETH is a desirable goal.
Yet on the other hand one can question what is the cost of
maintaining a rigorous natural sciences methodology that is very
parsimonious in its approach to various evidentiary sources that
allegedly substantiate the ETH? There is also a bias here as to what
is scientific and what isn’t.
The cost in my view is unnecessarily large which is why I’m
appealing to Ufologists to move beyond the myopic focus of gaining
acceptance from scientific colleagues by using methodologies
appropriated from the natural sciences, and to more seriously
consider an exopolitical approach to the ETH. There are many reasons
that can be cited for why an exopolitical approach is warranted in
dealing with the UFO phenomenon and the ETH.
One, the ETH behind the UFO phenomenon was never an exclusively
technical problem that required a natural scientific methodology in
addressing. There was also a very clear political and national
security dimension behind the UFO phenomenon and the
ETH. This is
made very clear in events such as General Voyt Vandenberg rejecting
the initial Estimate of the Situation presented by the Project Sign
team in 1948 on grounds that were political and national security
related rather than technical
(see
HERE). This and many other examples drawn from the national security
dimensions of the UFO phenomenon merits political analysis of the
ETH by researchers using methodologies derived from political
science. This necessarily requires breaking free of an exclusive
technical analysis by Ufologists using natural science
methodologies, and moving into the arena of exopolitics. Thus
exopolitics focuses on the study of the key actors, institutions and
processes behind the UFO phenomenon and the ETH.
Two, the general public overwhelming believe that the
ETH is true
and that a political cover-up is underway. A 2002 Roper poll
confirmed that almost 70% of the US public support the ETH and
believe that a government cover up is underway (http://www.scifi.com/ufo/roper/04.html). While it is legitimate to point out the science is not conducted
by public opinion polls, it is equally legitimate to point out that
public policy/national security policies are influenced by public
opinion. So while the natural sciences may dismiss the relevance of
public opinion in conducting pure science, this approach is not
shared by political science where public opinion is any important
factor in the formulation and implementation of public policy and
national security policy.
Three, the testimony of numerous whistleblowers that has been
compiled by the
Disclosure Project
points to the extensive national security cover up of evidence
validating the ETH.
Steven Greer’s work in gaining the testimony
and/or commitment of up to 400 whistleblowers for possible
disclosure before a US congressional committee has brought into the
public arena a wealth of information that has great exopolitical
significance.
Finally, the evidence provided by UFO sightings, alleged
extraterrestrial abductions/contacts, remote viewers, and other
evidentiary sources is overwhelming in scope and details concerning
the ETH. These reasons all contribute to the central premise of
exopolitics that evidence supporting the ETH is overwhelming and we
need to start thinking about the political implications of the
cover-up that has been underway for more than five decades.
As far as criticisms of my own exopolitics research is concerned, let
me set the record straight by saying that I don’t consider myself to
be a UFO researcher or Ufologist in search of evidence proving the
existence of the UFO phenomenon, but a political scientist using
qualitative analysis of the various sources of evidence pertaining
to non-disclosure of an extraterrestrial presence. I rely heavily on
the testimonies of a variety of whistleblowers in drawing my
exopolitical analyses of various issues relevant to the ETH. The
criteria I have used in assembling these sources for my exopolitical
analysis in have included the following:
-
Coherence - testimony is marked
by absence of conflicting statements and internal
contradictions
-
Consistency - testimony is consistent with two or more independent
sources
-
Motivation - individual is motivated to disseminate information for
legitimate purposes rather than out of a desire for recognition,
monetary compensation, or political advantage
-
Integrity - individual displays high degree of principle in
responding to intimidation, harassment or other negative behavior
-
Independence - individual is not unduly influenced by government
intelligence agencies and/or extraterrestrial race
-
Evidence - is there physical evidence to substantiate the claims of
witness/whistleblower/remote viewer
The above criteria are helpful guides for any competent researcher
in determining the validity of a particular category of testimony or
evidence concerning the ETH. Due to these criteria having a mix of
objective and subjective features, there is a need for the competent
researchers to deal with the available material using an inclusive
or broad multi-disciplinary approach. A parsimonious approach as to
what constitutes credible evidence/testimony for extraterrestrial
researchers is untenable due to the inherent difficult of making
conclusive statements about the range of testimonies that witnesses/contactees/whistleblowers
make available. The subject matter is often so exotic and government
interference with evidence, witnesses and whistleblowers is so
pervasive that excluding some categories of evidence is untenable
and methodologically unsound. While the above criteria may not
satisfy the parsimonious researcher seeking a restricted pool of
data from which to draw reliable conclusions that might impress
colleagues in the natural sciences, the above criteria provide a
safety net for ensuring reliable and accurate information for
research into the ETH.
Furthermore, there has also been criticism of my exopolitics
research in terms of my using "material from the internet" rather
than presumably reports, interviews and analysis gained from field
research, laboratory analysis and archival research favored by
'serious Ufologists’. This is what was actually said in a Washington
Post interview by Peter Carlson where I referred to my use of the
internet to support my exopolitics research on the alleged
Eisenhower-extraterrestrial meeting:
'he [Salla] says, he found
evidence of ET visitations -- including the Ike encounter -- on the
Internet. "There’s a lot of stuff on the Internet," he says,
"and I just went around and pieced it together"’
(http://www.exopolitics.org/Wash-Post-Ike
and ETs.htm).
Now the quote refers primarily to extraterrestrial visitations and
the
Eisenhower-Extraterrestrial encounter where most of the material
for that meeting was found using sources available on the internet.
It should be pretty clear that evidence of an
Eisenhower-extraterrestrial meeting is not going to be readily
available using FOIA requests, archival research, and involves
citing some of controversial whistleblower sources whose work is
freely available on the internet. In addition, I conducted a number
of interviews with various individuals with information on the
alleged Eisenhower meeting which I did not disclose in the
Washington Post article. While I see no problem in using internet
sources for building a case for an undisclosed extraterrestrial
visitation that resulted in a series of secret agreements with the
U.S. government, I was never claiming that this was exclusive and
sufficient for exopolitics research, and I did use additional
sources of information such as confidential interviews to support
this research.
The sources of evidence for the exopolitics research I conduct are
wide ranging and the internet is an acceptable though not exclusive
source of evidence for exopolitics. Part of the problem with
internet research is that there is an inherent bias in Ufology which
uses primarily methodologies appropriate to the natural sciences,
rather social sciences. The qualitative methodologies I use involve
analyzing the credibility, coherence, consistency and clarity of
whistleblowers whom I cite and who I have interviewed in a number of
cases. Ufologists would instead focus on the credentials and
empirical evidence that can be validated which in the case of
controversial whistleblowers is often not possible.
The justification I use for the different exopolitical sources I
cite is found in an online study paper I published in January 2003
(see
HERE), which was revised
for the first chapter of my book,
Exopolitics (Dandelion Books,
2004). Many sources of whistleblower, abductees/contactees, remote
viewing and other information are found on the internet. Some of the
whistleblowers I cited gave lectures/interviews or released material
that is widely available and in some cases ONLY available on the
internet. While the internet is an important source for gaining
evidence of the extraterrestrial visitations, this does not make it
exclusive, nor does it obviate the need for field work, interviews,
archival research and laboratory analysis when appropriate. There is
some sort of balance in qualitative and quantitative methodologies
required here and while elusive, this is something worth exploring
when it comes to the ETH.
Exopolitics is gaining popularity because the general public have
tired of Ufologists debating ad nauseum technical information
validating the ETH. The public are seeking objective political
analysis of the ETH which is substantiated by an overwhelming body
of evidence that validates the ETH, and how and why government
authorities are not disclosing information. I hope that Ufologists
give exopolitics research more serious attention rather than simply
promoting Ufology as a discipline that is based on the
methodological biases drawn from the natural science backgrounds of
most Ufologists.
The cost for not taking exopolitics more seriously
is that Ufology risks losing touch with what most concerns the
general public about what evidence overwhelmingly points to as an
undisclosed extraterrestrial presence. The long term cost to
Ufology for not taking exopolitics seriously is
Ufology risks becoming a
politically irrelevant hobby, or at worst, a complicit actor in
suppressing evidence supporting the ETH.
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