"UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions" -- 1968 NSA document
2009-04-30 12:33:00
This has been a document I return to often. The author is unknown but the concepts are exceptionally tasty. Enjoy.
It is the purpose of this monograph to consider briefly some of the human survival implications suggested by the various principal hypotheses concerning the nature of the phenomena loosely categorized as UFO.
1. All UFOs Are Hoaxes.
From the time when hoaxes were first noted in history, they were characterized by infrequency of occurrence and usually by a considerable restriction of their geographical extent. Rarely have men of science, while acting within their professional capacities, perpetrated hoaxes. The fact that UFO phenomena have been witnessed all over the world from ancient times, and by considerable numbers of reputable scientists in recent times, indicates rather strongly that UFOs are not all hoaxes. If anything, rather than diminishing, the modern trend is toward increased reports, from all sources. In one three month period in 1953 (June, July and August) Air Force records show 35 sightings whose nature could not be determined. If UFOs, contrary to all indications and expectations, are indeed hoaxes--hoaxes of a world wide dimension--hoaxes of increasing frequency, then a human mental aberration of alarming proportions would seem to be developing. Such an aberration would seem to have serious implications for nations equipped with nuclear toys--and should require immediate and careful study by scientists.
2. All UFOs Are Hallucinations.
People, of course, do hallucinate. Although groups of people hallucinating is rare, it has been known to happen. Machines have their own form of hallucination; the radar, in particular, 'sees' temperature inversions. But a considerable number of instances exist in which there are groups of people and a radar or radars seeing the same thing at the same time; sometimes a person and gun camera confirm each other's testimony. On occasion, physical evidence of a circumstantial nature was reported to have been found to support witnessed sightings. A continuing high percentage of reports of unusual aerial objects are being reported by people in responsible positions in science, government, and industry. The sum of such evidence seems to argue strongly against all UFOs being halluciinations. In spite of all the evidence to the contrarty, if UFOs did turn out to be largely illusionary, the psychological implications for man would certainly bring into stong question his ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. The negative effect on man's ability to survive in an increasingly complex world would be considerable--making it imperative that such a growing impairment of the human capacity for rational judgment be subjected to immediate and thorough scientific study so that the illness could be controlled before it reaches epidemic proportions...
3. All UFOs Are Natural Phenomena.
If this hypothesis is correct, the capability of air warning systems to correctly diagnose an attack situation is open to serious question.
A. Many UFOs have been reported by trained military observers to behave like high speed, high performance, high altitude rockets or aircraft. The apparent solidity and craft-like shape of the objects have often been subject to radar confirmation. If such reports can appear to trained military men as rockets or aircraft and if such objects should come over the Arctic from the direction of Russia on the United States, they could trigger 'false reports of missle attacks.'
B. Many responsible military officers have developed a mental 'blind spot' to objects which appear to have charachteristics of UFOs. Such an attitude is an open invitation to the enemy to build a replica of the phenomena in order to penetrate the 'hole' in his aversary's defenses...
C. Sometimes the phenomena appear to defy radar detection and to cause massive electromagnetic interference. Surely it is very important to discover the nature of these objects or plasmas before any prospective enemy can use their properties to build a device or system to circumvent or jam our air and space detection systems--Any nation certainly could use a system or device to penetrate enemy defenses.--Was this the purpose of the lense shaped reentry vehicle tested by the USAF in 1960?
4. Some UFOs Are Secret Earth Projects.
The above-referenced U.S. Air Force reenetry vehicle and an often publicized Canadian 'saucer' project leave little doubt as to the validity of this hypotheseis. Undoubtedly, all UFOs should be carefully scrutinized to ferret out such enemy (or 'friendly') projects. Otherwise a nation faces the very strong possibility of being intimidated by a new secret 'doomsday' weapon.
5. UFOs Are Related to Intra-terrestrial Intelligence.
According to some eminent scientists closely associated with the study of this phenomenon, this hypothesis cannot be disregarded. (The well documented sightings over Washington, D.C. in 1952 strongly support his view.) This hypothesis has a number of far-reaching human survival implications:
A. If 'they' discover you, it is an old but hardly invalid rule of thumb, 'they' are your technological superiors. Human history has shown us time and again the tragic results of a confrontation between a technologically superior civilization and a technologically inferior people. The 'inferior' is usually subject to physical conquest.
B. Often in the past, a technologically superior people are also possessors of a more virile or aggressive culture. In a confronttion between two peoples of significantly different culture levels, those having the inferior or less virile culture most often suffer a tragic loss of identity and are absorbed by the other people.
C. Some peoples who were technologically and/or culturally inferior to other nations have survived--have maintained their identity--have equalized the differences between them and their adversaries. The Japanese people have given us an excellent example of the methods required to achieve such survival:
(1) full and honest acceptance of the nature of the inferiorities separating you from the advantages of the other peoples,
(2) complete national solidarity in all positions taken in dealing with the other culture,
(3) highly controlled and limited intercourse with the other side--doing only those things advantageous to the foreigner which you are absolutely forced to do by the circumstances,
(4) a correct but friendly attitude toward the other people,
(5) a national eagerness to learn everything possible about the other citizens--its technological and cultural strengths and weaknesses. This often involves sending selected groups and individuals to the other's country to become one of his kind, or even to help him in his wars against other adversaries,
(6) Adopting as many of the advantages of the opposing people as you can, and doing it as fast as possible--while still protecting your own identity by molding each new knowledge increment into your own cultural cast.
Comment: Although this paper has hardly exhausted the possible hypotheses related to the UFO phenomena, those mentioned above are the principal ones presently put forward. All of them have serious survival implications. The final answer to this mystery will probably include more than one of the above hypotheses.
Up until this time, the leisurely scientific approach has too often taken precedence in dealing with UFO questions. If you are walking along a forest path and someone yells 'rattler' your reaction would be immediate and defensive. You would not take time to speculate before you act. You would have to treat the alarm as if it were a real and immediate threat to your survival. Investigation would become an intensive emergency action to isolate the threat and to determine its precise nature. It would be geared to developing adequate defensive measures in a minimum amount of time. It would seem a little more of this survival attitude is called for in dealing with the UFO problem.
Observations of chimpanzees while in a captive environment have shown that the animals tend to become confused and disoriented. Since they do not usually have adult chimps to teach them how to be good apes, they are not even sure of their behavior. Often their actions are patterned after human behavior and would have virtually no survival value in the wild. Lacking the challenge of environmental adaptation, the bodies of the animals atrophy and become subject to may diseases -- mostly unknown in their wild counterparts. Reactions to stimulus usually become less responsive and suitable. Sex becomes a year-long preoccupation instead of a seasonal madness.
Do the captivity characteristics of modern civilization cause a similar lessening of man's adaptive capability, of his health, of his ability to recognize reality, of his ability to survive?
Perhaps the UFO question might even make man undertake studies which could enable him to construct a society which is most conducive to developing a completely HUMAN being, healthy in all respects of mind and body and, most important, able to recognize and adapt to real environmental situations.