UFOs - Leslie Kean [52]
It still gives me chills to think about it.
PART 2
IN THE LINE OF DUTY
“It is one of the ironies of modern rule that it is far more acceptable today to affirm publicly one’s belief in God, for whose existence there is no scientific evidence, than UFOs, the existence of which—whatever they might be—is physically documented.”
ALEXANDER WENDT AND RAYMOND DUVALL
CHAPTER 11
The Roots of UFO Debunking in America
Because all of us have long been exposed to an atmosphere of ridicule and the automatic dismissal of the UFO phenomenon, I suspect that the information presented so far may have been very surprising, even shocking, for some readers. It’s not easy for anyone to come to terms with evidence for the reality of UFOs, and yet we’ve seen that such evidence can’t be dismissed out of hand. In reading about General De Brouwer’s painstaking investigation, or the disc hovering above O’Hare Airport, or the huge, flashing object jumping through the night sky over Tehran, we find ourselves forced to reconcile two radically conflicting paradigms. There is the one position we’ve always known, in which these things are out of the question; they can’t happen, according to agreed-upon laws of physics and cosmology, and therefore they simply don’t happen. But then there’s the fact that unknown objects have been seen by thousands of people all over the world, demonstrating these “impossible” capabilities right before our eyes. Most disturbing, of course, is the implied possibility that these UFOs, apparently under some kind of intelligent control, might have an origin outside of planet Earth, no matter how unthinkable that idea may be.
The reader may feel bewildered by this possibility, incredulous and hesitant to go on. There may still be that inclination to dismiss it all as foolishness or some kind of psychological aberration that no amount of evidence can change. Some readers might feel defiant at this point, or deeply alarmed. Simple curiosity and an open mind will temper these very natural reactions. Anyone who adventures into this strange realm goes through some level of internal struggle, as I did after discovering and researching the COMETA Report. Like everyone else, I was unnerved by all this, but also, as an investigative journalist, I soon became intrigued by its power and portentousness. As I’ve already described, I wanted to find out as much as I could about the UFO phenomenon—really find out if there was anything to it. And after a while I developed a kind of defiance—but this was not because of resistance to accepting UFOs as real. Instead, I was disturbed that something real was going on here and nobody seemed to be paying attention. Being naturally rebellious, I felt drawn to the challenge both to my own intellectual boundaries and to the limitations of conventional thinking. Awe and humility softened the more unnerving aspects of the discovery process, because the more I learned, the more convincing the whole thing became. Why should we assume we already understand everything there is to know, in our infancy here on this planet?
My evolution took years, involving much reading, discussion with veteran researchers, review of government documents, and interviews with retired military officials and UFO witnesses. I think that most of us willing to consider this subject, even without this level of intensity, come to a point of transition, a decisive moment when we cross our own deeply ingrained internal barrier. It isn’t easy. After all, we’re dealing with something so far ungraspable: the essential nature of the UFO. We have to come to terms with the recurring appearance of something absolutely unknown and unexplainable by science, something that operates as if it were outside the boundaries of our physical world but in it at the same time. To make it even more difficult, we’re burdened by the negativity and denial of the status quo that all of us have absorbed to one degree or another.
To understand that aspect of the problem,