UNSUNG UFO PIONEER UFO Intelligence Digas nan Wren toy caret step ousiae ne narrow confines of their particular field or specialty, scientists nearly always become bumbling, undistinguished amateurs. Those who take up such hobbies as photography, magic, paint- ing, or even candiemaking rarely gain even a modicum of recognition among their fellow hobbyists. Today, talent and imagination are not prerequisites for a scientific career, but are actually a handicap. Old-style scientists such as Albert Einstein, Charles Steinmetz, Nikola Tesla, and J.R. Oppenheimer have become obsolete. A new breed has appeared in recent years; an elite of technicians rather than innovators. How many living scientists can the average person name today? And how many of them have made viable, defin- able contributions to the human condi- tion? Science has become a world of gadgetry designed to foster product development and increase corporate profit. People have been forgotten amongst the computers and machines of the scientific-industrial complex. For many years the myth persisted that once “science” recognized the UFO problem, the mystery would be solved and many universal questions would be put to rest. But in actual practice, scientists have an appalling record in ufology, beginning with the schizophrenic, multimillion dollar inves- tigation subsidized by the U.S. Air Force, Time and again throughout the 1950's and 60's, whenever a man with scientific credentials entered the UFO fray he succeeded only in spreading unnecessary confusion and conflict. Nothing productive was ever ac: complished. While the UFO hobbyists gratefully accepted such people (and instantly elevated them to the question able status of “famous scientst” be- cause they held a Ph.D.), they soon tured upon their newly found heroes or splintered into factions of support and dissent. From kindly old Hermann Oberth to Dr. James McDonald there were cries of joy, screams of anguish, and finally grim disillusionment, Even the National Congress of Scientific Ufologists, a prominent hobbyist group, proudly awarded Dr. Edward U. Con- don a plaque as “Lfologist of the Year 42 & UFO REPORT before his notorious Air Force- sponsored anti-UFO report was pub- lished. Since that faux pas this group has wisely issued their annual award to members of their inner circle. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who, after years of being happily embraced by the true believers, is currently under fire be- cause his Center for UFO Studies has failed to solve the mystery. Dr. Hynek, an astronomer by profession, has been ‘a perennial UFO amateur since the late 1940's when the Air Force hired him to find astronomical explanations for flying saucer sightings. Like most scientists- tumed-amateur, Hynek has established a record of increasing vagueness and indecision. In the 11 years since he abandoned the Air Force's anti-UFO line and frolicked through the emotional mine field of amateur ufology, he has alternately come out for and against every possible theory and avenue of approach, Tronically, the man who deserves the most recognition in the UFO field has been systematically converted into a non-person by the Urological Estab- lishment. When Professor David Michael Jacobs recently wrote a book purporting to be the complete history of the UFO controversy in America he managed to put together 332 pages that named this man only once . .. and then only in an unflattering quote. Dr. Edward Condon's massive 900-paged boondoggle likewise ignored him. The average UFO paperback potboiler— and they are now appearing by the score—rarely mentions this man. Readers are led to believe that ufology has always been centered around the ha-dozen correspondence clubs and Maj. Donald €. Keyhoe’s long running battle with the Air Force. Yet 20 years ago one name towered above all others in ufology. A name so potent that Capt Edward Ruppelt of Project Blue Book once publicly credited him with having started the entire UFO controversy. At the very least, he kept the subject alive during the dark days of sco and ridicule in the 1950's. His name is Ray Palmer. Despite a serious physical handicap, By John Keel Palmer's brilliance enabled him to rise quickly in the editorial hierarchy of the then-huge Zitf-Davis publishing com- pany in the 1940's. As editor of Amaz~ ing Stories he was the very first profes- sional to recognize the existence of the UFO phenomenon and he was publish- ing extensive articles and stories about it years before Kenneth Arnold's hi toric sighting in 1947. The letters-to- the-editor column of his magazine was always filled with intriguing reports from readers. Itwas Palmer who encouraged ‘Arnold to visit Tacoma, Wash., in 1947 and investigate the fascinating Maury Island Mystery... . a landmark case that was. undoubtedly the most important single event in ufology even though the Air Force later tried to explain the whole episode away as a hoax, In 1948, Palmer boldly left Zitf-Davis. to start his own magazine. From his writings during this period it is obvious that he knew more about the flying saucer phenomneon than any other living man. He had poured over thousands of reports from his readers, and he had initiated several important investigations. His influence among the growing bands of UFO hobbyists was awesome. Early newspapermen and professional writers leaned heavily on his expertise, but the Air Force intell gence teams ignored him, turning, in- Stead, to a battery of overpaid scientists who squandered tax dollars by the thousands in a futile search for mun- dane explanations. Tho frst issues of his new magazine made it clear that Palmer was. very aware of the psychic-occult connec. tions and the importance of the humanoid reports. Yet more than 20 (Continued on page 64)INTELLIGENCE DIGEST (Continued from page 12) years would pass before the Ufological Establishment would catch up with him. The correspondence clubs and amateur newsletters chose to assume a negative stance of their own, denounc- ing the psychic factors and deliberately suppressing the innumerable occupant reports. It remained for the more objec- tive and open-minded European re- searchers to open this can of worms. By the late 1950's most of the profes- sionals had abandoned the UFO field because of boredom or disgust with all the childish in-fighting. Palmer's magazine struggled on as the only national journal on the subject. The correspondence clubs, misled and floundering, ran out of targets for their animosity and turned against him. His growing preoccupation with the occult and his rejection of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis further alienated him from the “nuts and bolts” brigade who were solely concerned with proving the exis~ tence of extraterrestrial spaceships and some massive governmental conspir- acy. Scientists-turned-amateur drifted in and out of the field, usually lacking the creativity to find ways of applying the coveted scientific method to the elusive UFOs. Like all the other UFO hobbyists before them, they became embroiled in petty personality clashes amongst themselves or became mired in their own conspiracy theories. The outrageous debacle of the Colorado University UFO study of the late 1960's became a classic example of the kind of churlishness and ineptitude that profes- sorial types can bring to the subject. Ray Paimer was overshadowed, not by greater minds or more competent investigators, but by a complicated propaganda compaign unwittingly launched by ego-driven true believers. His following has steadily diminished. His name has been erased from the history books and his major contribution to the early days of ufology has been consciously reduced to a random foot note or two. Professor Jacobs’ re- visionist history of the controversy has selectively emphasized the unproduc- tive nonsense of the correspondence clubs and the posturing of the self- styled leaders who spent most of their time glorifying themselves while serious UFO investigations remained frozen in asstate of total paralysis. Thiny years nave passed since Ken- eth Arnold flew into Tacoma and “fly- ing saucers” entered the modern vo- cabulary. Today the “crackpot” ideas of Ray Palmer have gained new respec- tability and acceptance, although vari- ous amateurs, both scientific. and civil- ian, are now claiming some ot his ideas as their personal “discoveries.” Sadly, ufology is making many of the same mistakes of the professional para- psychologists. The ufological Establish- ment is now tentatively re-covering old ground, ignorant of the fact that pioneers like Palmer had carefully examined the same things a generation ago. Inadequate and legally discredited tools such as hypnosis and polygraph tests are preoccupying modern inves- tigators. The rapid worldwide growth of landings, occupant sighiings, abduc- tions, and hostile contact cases are stil not receiving the attention they de- serve. Personality conflicts still run high. At least two recent events, both widely publicized—the Travis Walton episode and the Pascagoula incident—were terribly mishandled by the amateur investigators who became involved. We can now take a serious retrospec- tive look at the history of UFOs in the past 30 years. We can assess the progress and measure the setbacks. We can analyze the personalities of the past and study their horrendous mis- takes. Above all, we should question former methodologies and try to im- prove upon them in the future. It has been proved again and again in the past 30 years that money—tax dollars—and science can not make a significant contribution to the solution of the mystery. Something else is needed, a bold, imaginative application of de- ductive reasoning. Science has failed us because the UFO phenomenon seems to lie outside the tightly drawn boundaries of contemporary science. Almost any theory seems to work in ufology because the UFO phenomenon is a mixed-bag of the psychic and occult, the psychological and the physiological, the ridiculous and the sublime. Other hobbies, such as stamp and coin collecting have solidly established methodologies, outstanding authorities and literate, sensible newsletters. But the Ufological Establishment is founded on perverse emotionalism and narrow-minded amateurism. Any seri- ‘ous newcomer to the field finds that he, fike author Ralph Blum must go to Europe and interview the authorities there to gain some insight into the true picture. He might also find it fruitful to journey to Wisconsin and talk with Ray Palmer. But if he merely plunges head- long into the correspondence clubs and wallows in their often-biased newslet- ters, he may find himself as confused 30 years from now as he was at the beginning. He will have become a Perennial amateur, climbing a mountain of speculation in the hopes of finding a molehill of fact *