Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [48]
Hynek also has to answer for his claim, in The Edge of Reality, about a photo of two glowing oval objects hovering in the dark of space outside the U.S. spacecraft Gemini 7. These were photographed by astronauts Borman and Lovell and snapped up by the tabloids as genuine flying saucers, apparently without any attempt to discover the truth about the assertions that they were vehicles operated by extraterrestrial life. But James Oberg, a prominent UFO investigator, easily solved the mystery and exposed it in The Skeptical Inquirer. Oberg wrote, "This famous photograph is a blatant forgery, in which light reflections off the nose of the spacecraft are made to look like UFOs by airbrushing away the vehicle structure around them. Verdict: fraud."
Dr. Hynek, says Oberg, has accepted this analysis but, again, has never troubled to tell his readers about it. Another good story would have been dumped, and we simply can't have any cold water thrown into this crazy bathtub.
The excuse that such items were included in the book without the approval of the author simply will not wash. When an author makes declarations that are accepted because of his reputation, he has an obligation of the highest order to control whatever appears under his name.
Dr. Hynek, when his pronouncements are carefully studied, comes off as a rather dichotomous character. Philip J. Klass, examining various interviews given by Hynek, noted that he managed the following two statements in two different interviews during August 1976:
In recent times I have come to support less and less the idea that UFOs are "nuts-and-bolts" spacecraft from other worlds. There are just too many things going against this theory.
Then he hits us with this:
There is so much nuts-and-bolts evidence. How do you explain things you can see on radar? How do you explain imprints on the ground? How do you explain something that comes along and tears off the tops of trees?... How do you explain bullets ricocheting off whatever was in the sky?
He tells us that the UFOs are real, palpable, immaterial, and unsubstantial all at the same time. No wonder they evoke such wonder!
The NASA photo before retouching. The bright spots are highlights on the Gemini 7 capsule, which appears as a dark shadow here. NASA
The NASA photo after it was airbrushed to conceal the shadow of the Gemini 7 capsule.
But there's much more. In the same pair of interviews Dr. Hynek both accepts the evidence for "close encounters of the third kind" (actual contact with occupants of a UFO) and strenuously denies it:
The close encounter of the third kind involves humanoid occupants. Currently we have an estimated 800 sightings of this sort on file... John Fuller, the well-known writer... told me the fascinating story of Betty and Barney Hill....
My thinking was altered completely when I was called in along with Dr. Harder of the University of California to interrogate two Mississippi fishermen, Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson, who insist they were literally "kidnapped" and forced to go aboard a spacecraft, where they were subjected—just as in the case of the Hills—to a physical examination. The tale told by these two rugged shipyard workers held up under grueling cross-examination.
This is followed by his opinion of those who claim to have had one of these "encounters," and bear in mind that Hynek has interviewed—personally—not only the four persons just mentioned but others as well who make these claims:
Frankly, I quite strenuously avoid them [those who claim contact with humanoids from space], I'm almost embarrassed by the reports. None of those people have ever been able to produce anything reliable. It's junk, just junk!
His knowledge of airline statistics needs a bit of brushing up, too. When Dr. Arthur C. Hastings (we hear his name in connection with some of the alleged miracles reported at the Stanford Research Institute, so he's one of the "in" people) asked Hynek why