The Government, Field
Investigation, and
By Craig R. Lang, FI Coordinator, MN MUFON
Recently, I was attempting to follow up on a sighting which was published on an electronic publication on the internet. I sent a message to the publisher, asking him to put me in contact with the witness. The publisher informed me that he was reluctant to do so. His stated reason was that MUFON was considered to be controlled by the government, and the confidentiality of the witness would therefore be compromised. My response to him, asking him to explain his remarks went unanswered, so the problem remains - where do rumors like this get started?
Research into the nature of the UFO phenomenon presents the field investigator with many challenges. Many of these are inherent in the nature of the phenomenon itself: We are dealing with UFO reports, not the UFOs themselves. We seldom have physical evidence. We therefore must rely on witness testimony. Where there are multiple witnesses to a sighting, their testimonies often conflict. While these problems are to be expected, other problems exist which are more artificial in nature. In my view the worst of these is the presence of rumor and innuendo within the UFO community itself.
MUFON gets its information from one main source - sighting witnesses. The process of field investigation is a matter of trust - between the witness and the investigator, and between research organizations. To date, this has largely been good, with organizations being willing to share information, etc. However, the damage that such rumors can do is obvious.
In the case in point, the report was made to a popular UFO bulletin board - which attracts a large percentage of sighting reports, which would otherwise have gone to MUFON. When suspicion arises between organizations, the willingness to share information breaks down, and everyone is the loser.
MUFON is a grass roots organization, made up of regional investigators and consultants. It has a very small staff, and is largely maintained by volunteers who offer their time purely out of dedication to the study of the UFO mystery. For investigators such as myself, UFOlogy is entirely an avocation - I have a day job.
What is the most likely cause of this problem? First, Paranoia is rampant within the UFO community.
Secondly, sighting reports are filtered according to local evaluation, among other criteria. This requires the field investigator(s) to evaluate the sightings at the local and state level. Many sighting cases seem to attract a core of UFO believers - frequently for other than scientific reasons - long before the results of the field investigation come in. Thus, whenever the conclusion of an investigator is that a particular sighting may have been of an IFO, the believer community can sometimes be deeply offended. The investigator is labeled as a "debunker" - or worse, a "government agent". This is one peril of being an objective investigator.
It is an ingrained part of UFO lore that there is a government disinformation strategy (whether or not this assertion is true, I do not know). The strategy as stated is to perpetuate the cover-up by debunking any and all UFO sightings. This is presumably done in many ways, but one way to do this would involve "disinformation agents" working in the field. Their function would be to debunk UFO sightings as quickly as possible, to cover up the truth. The logical extension of this idea is that an IFO explanation of any sighting which someone else believes to be a legitimate UFO must therefore be due to these agents.
Unfortunately, many MUFON investigators are quite willing to call an IFO an IFO. This often puts them at odds with other UFO believers. As a result, it logically follows that MUFON must be infiltrated by disinformation agents (with me so far?...).
The dark power of innuendos such as these is that the accuser can remain anonymous while the accused can never clear their name. Once an accusation is made the damage is done and trust is lost. I suggest that if anyone wanted to divide the UFO community, this would be the best way to do it.
We all have different theories of the reality of the UFO phenomenon. However, serious UFO researchers are dedicated to finding the truth behind the mystery - whatever that truth may be. The only way that we can make headway is if we share information. Organizations must work with each other. There must be the capacity for joint investigations of cases. The lines of communication must remain open.
The field investigator group within Minnesota MUFON is dedicated to objective research into UFO sightings. These may often result in IFO explanations. This may at times make us unpopular with the true believers. However, that doesn't make us government agents.
Note: This article was originally published in 1998 in the MN MUFON Newsletter
