Prime Time Replay:
Peter Brookesmith
co-author of UFOs & Ufology: The First 50 Years
MsgId: *high_strangeness(36)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:10:19 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
A slight technical glitch! Welcome to High Strangeness! Our guest tonight is Peter Brookesmith, co-author with Paul Devereux, of the forthcoming "UFOs & Ufology: The First 50 Years." Peter is also the author of "UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalog" and "UFO: The Government Files." His "Alien Abductions" will appear next year.Peter, are you with us? Thanks for staying up so late, 3am your time!
MsgId: *high_strangeness(38)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:13:56 EST 1997
From: Peter At: 195.232.25.96
Hi Dennis - yeah, I made it. Not too late for those of us who sleep upside down during daylight . . .
MsgId: *high_strangeness(39)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:14:10 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
The modern era of UFOs is generally assumed to have begun with Kenneth Arnold's June 24, 1947 sighting. Is that when your book begins?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(40)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:17:30 EST 1997
From: Peter At: 195.232.25.96
Inevitably - but we go way back throough the historical sightings too. Obviously people have been seeing very odd things in the sky for centries - the question is: what are they?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(41)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:20:20 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
Who are the first ufologists to deal with the subject? Put another way, we've got the phenomenon, now where does its systematic study begin?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(42)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:23:51 EST 1997
From: Peter At: 195.232.25.96
There must be six answers to that question! In a sense, Charles Fort was the first modern ufologist, but he was a very wicked person who never got out of his armchair, figuratively speaking. The first people to take a "scientific" aproach to UFOs were the US Air Force - and that wouldn't have happened I suspect except in the aftermath of World War II.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(43)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:26:18 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
Does the Air Force get good grades, or do they come in for criticism?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(44)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:30:34 EST 1997
From: Peter At: 195.232.25.96
They did what they could, some of the time, but then as now the subject, or the problem, rapidly became embroiled in politics. The fight over the ETH began in 1948-9, and it continues today - though not in the USAF, I suspect. The USAF has also made a clown of itself over its latest Roswell report, tho I think they may well be on track with their Mogul balloon theory.
MsgId: *high_strangeness(45)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:33:14 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
When did civilians first abscond with the subject? And what were the results?
MsgId: *high_strangeness(46)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:40:04 EST 1997
From: Peter At: 195.232.25.96
I guess they ran off with the ball in 1949-50, with Scully's book on downed saucers, and Keyho's article in True magazine (later made into a book). It sounds cruel to today's ufologists, but my own view is that you'll find little has changed in ufology since. The attitudes are the same, although the way they manifest themselves are different. There aren't any abductions being reported, for instance. But scratch an abductionist, and the Great Cover Up is there under the skin, and that goes right back to Scully's rage and fear about McCarthyism. If you think that's a hint that I think ufology is more a social phenomenon than a objective, setfcone nvolving e rf and real aliens, well, you might be right!
MsgId: *high_strangeness(47)
Date: Tue Nov 11 22:43:13 EST 1997
From: Dennis At: 206.127.4.120
English Internet servers and gummed up keyboards! Are you saying that a study of ufologists' habits is more revealing than a study of the phenomenon itself?Obviously, we're suffering some technological delays here. I would like to thank Peter Brookesmith for staying up so late in an attempt to try to talk with us. "UFOs & Ufology: The First Fifty Years" should appear in this country soon. The publisher is Facts on File. Peter, thanks again for trying, and good night, or morning, in your case! This has been Dennis Stacy for Omni Online.
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