-
- Back in 1997, during the first week in
June, I had received a call from a UPI reporter that had contacted Mr.
Kenny Young. Evidently, Young had given him my name for a telephone interview,
as the reporter wanted my opinion about the 50th anniversary of the modern
era of UFOs.
-
- At the close of the interview, the reporter
stated: "I guess, Mr. Black, that you will be throwing a party."
-
- I was silent for about three or four
seconds, and the reporter said: "Mr. Black, are you still there?"
-
- "Yes sir," I said. "No,
I will not be throwing any parties. For one thing, what have we -as a UFO
community- accomplished in the last 50-years? In the last 20-years, I have
watched ufology take a step backwards almost every year."
-
- "Our self-proclaimed 'leaders of
ufology' have let the whole UFO community down. They seem more concerned
with writing books, "I told the reporter," and staying in the
public eye than they are with finding out the answers to the UFO phenomenon.
-
- "And these are the people who have
been entrusted with keeping the people informed as to what's going on in
the UFO community.
-
- "Also," I said to the reporter,
"people have been writing books about their UFO and abduction experiences,
and most of these books have gone unchallenged. Nobody has made an objective,
scientific attempt to analyze the people who have written these books,
it basically seems 'up to the public' to decide whether or not these people
are telling the truth.
-
- "In my opinion, it is the responsibility
of the UFO community to critique these books when they come out, and let
the general public know where they stand after they have performed a comprehensive
and objective investigation.
-
- "None of these things are being
done," I said to the gentleman. "So there is no reason for any
celebration about the fiftieth anniversary of the modern-era of ufology."
-
- Now some of you have not liked my tone.
I do not apologize for that. My tone has not been the way you have perceived
it, my tone is one of determination. Determination to speak out against
what I feel are the problems we have with the leadership of ufology. I
will continue to speak out against the so-called "leadership"
in ufology, the people that everyone sees or hears on TV or radio most
of the time.
-
- I think it is a disgrace that the Whitley
Strieber case has never been investigated. The responsibility for that
lies on the two major groups, in my opinion. I believe that Mr. Walt Andrus
and Mr. Jerome Clark are responsible to scientifically and objectively
investigate any major case that makes network news - or to which a book
has been written about. There haven't been that many cases which have appeared
in the last 15 to 20-years to be concerned with, but there have been a
few. These few have been allowed to 'run amuck' out there with these people
making money without any serious challenge being made to them.
-
- I certainly don't expect MUFON to make
any challenge to books that are written by people claiming to be contactees
like Whitley Strieber, or people claiming numerous contacts like Ed Walters.
Not only does MUFON not do their job by objectively investigating these
cases, but rather, they embrace them at their different symposiums around
the country. Most recently, Mr. Strieber was even a guest at symposium-type
event.
-
- And while Jerome Clark and The Center
for UFO Studies say that there are certainly problems with the Gulf Breeze
and Whitley Strieber cases, what have they truly done to make a critical
investigation of either case?
-
- Realizing that MUFON was investigating
Gulf Breeze, was it the friendship displayed by Budd Hopkins [who wrote
the foreword to 'Gulf Breeze'] or Bruce Maccabee [who has upheld Gulf Breeze
so staunchly] that they don't want to get involved an make their own analysis?
Each organisation, regardless of whose case it is, needs to take a scientific
and objective look at each issue and write their own report.
-
- In the case of Whitley Strieber, I don't
recall ever reading where MUFON or CUFOS, ever asked to set up equipment
in Mr. Strieber's home [which he may have denied anyhow]. I don't think
anyone has ever asked, until myself, that Strieber take a properly-sponsored
third-party polygraph test. If MUFON or CUFOS have asked to stay in Mr.
Strieber's home for over a week with this equipment, then I stand corrected.
I do know, for a fact, that they never asked him or his wife Anne, to take
a polygraph test.
-
- Whitley Strieber, and now Mr. J. Reed,
who alleges to have killed an alien and had it taken from his home, both
of these gentlemen have taken self-sponsored polygraph tests. And why have
they done so? Because CUFOS, by not making a comprehensive report, and
by MUFON, courtesy of Walt Andrus' ridiculous investigation practices,
have allowed Ed Walters' self-sponsored polygraph tests to stand. So consequently,
Mr. Whitley Strieber felt -as I'm sure Mr. Reed did also- "if they
approved of his, why can't we take ours?"
-
- I also think that the self-proclaimed
leaders in ufology during the past 10 or 15-years have let the UFO community
and general public down.
-
- Again we have Stanton Friedman in his
latest book with Whitley Strieber writing the foreword. Not only does he
write this segment of Friedman's book, but it is noted very prominently
on the outside cover of the book, stating: "Foreword by Whitley Strieber."
I asked Mr. Friedman if he supported the Whitley Strieber case, or was
this done to help sell the book, by either himself or the publisher. There
was no response. Regardless, when UFO investigators who have been in the
business 10 or 15-years see what they perceive to be one of the self-proclaimed
leaders in ufology with Whitley Strieber writing a foreword for their book,
they make the assumption that Mr. Friedman supports the Whitley Strieber
case. I cannot see how that Stanton Friedman, without taking a look at
the Whitley Strieber story, can support that case.
-
- Mr. Stanton Friedman, one of our self-proclaimed
spokesmen, not only supports the hoaxed case of Whitley Strieber, but also
-because of his loyalty to Bruce Maccabee and what he has said about the
Gulf Breeze investigations - supports the hoaxed Ed Walters/Gulf Breeze
scenarios.
-
- Finally, in the last 10 or 15-years,
we have had the crossovers. Those are investigators in other fields which
may or may not be proven later to be related to the UFO phenomenon. One
such crossover is Mr. Richard Hoagland. Another crossover is Mr. Colin
Andres, and another crossover is Linda Moulton Howe. If we go back much
farther than that, even Mr. Bruce Maccabee is a crossover, in which he
was formerly a photographic expert to now feeling he has the expertise
[which he has certainly shown no ability for] to be a UFO investigator.
-
- Getting back to the three recent crossovers,
they have crossed over from other fields and became professional UFO investigators.
Mr. Richard Hoagland, who dealt with the Face on Mars, has made many predictions
that have not come true. Mr. Whitley Strieber, who will brown-nose with
anyone in ufology if he figures it will benefit him, has claimed that he
likes a person like Richard Hoagland because he "lives on the edge."
No, Mr. Strieber, he's not living on the edge. What he is hoping for is
that one of his predictions will come true so that he could live off of
it for years like Jeanne Dixon did with her Kennedy prediction. Yet none
of Hoagland's predictions that he has made in the field of ufology have
come true.
-
- Andrew Collins, a few years ago, was
going to surprise everyone with this remarkable new evidence about UFOs.
He held a conference in which people were to pay $30 per head at a meeting
room at Madison Square Gardens in New York City, and when 30 to 50 people
attended, there was no 'new evidence' to be had.
-
- Linda Moulton Howe, who is now on the
Art Bell show on a regular basis [along with Whitley Strieber], while she
is a nice lady that I have had the opportunity to speak with once, can
be very gullible at times.
-
- Mr. Art Bell is what I call "Mr.
Entertainer." He has given Mr. Whitley Strieber a podium to speak
from on a regular basis. In fact, as I understand it, he has retained Strieber
to be a part-time host for the program while he is away. Further, I just
learned that he is co-authoring a book with Whitley Strieber. I can guarantee
that Art Bell has never checked out Whitley Strieber's story on the basis
that I have. He has simply taken his word for what he has to say. He allows
people to come on his show and he makes no challenges to them whatsoever.
It's one thing to let someone come on your show and speak about their experiences
like Mr. J. Reed did, but let's ask these people some tough questions.
Let's quit playing Mr. Entertainment man and play the serious investigating
man who really wants to get down to the truth. Art Bell does not do that.
Art Bell is not a UFO investigator, he is an entertainer. And for those
people like Linda Moulton Howe who continue to stay on his show just for
the sake of being able to get their message out on ufology or other things,
I think they lose credibility for doing so.
-
- JERRY BLACK 6276 Taylor Pike Blanchester,
Ohio 45107 (513) 625-2613
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- Website: http://members.xoom.com/blackshole/
-
- YOU CAN E-MAIL JERRY BLACK AT blackhole60@hotmail.com
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