WEBVTT - The Illusion of Motion 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:04.760 Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:22.159 audience for full exposure. Listen with headphones. Will of the 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.880 Wind your dancing night? Where do you wander into night? 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.160 Where would you lead? If I keep you in? Find 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:37.200 willow the wind? Where you're that kind of Norman? For me? Modeste? 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.920 What about you beg of me? Done for the same 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:50.760 Will of the Wind. I'm Toby Ball and this is 0:00:50.800 --> 0:01:09.040 Strange Arrivals, Episode seven, The Illusion of Movement. In March 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:14.720 of nine, the area around Hillsdale County, Michigan, experienced a 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:19.039 wave of UFO sightings that eventually garnered too much media 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:23.920 coverage for the Pentagon to simply ignore. The Air Force 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.960 sent Alan Heinek, the consulting scientists to Project blue Book 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.800 to see if he could find a satisfactory explanation. Here's 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:37.360 George Pruitt from w j R Radio in Detroit interviewing 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:42.920 Project blue Book head Major Hector Quentinilla the local news run. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.880 An Airporce investigating team is looking into the runch of 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.720 UFO reports that have taken place in southeastern Michigan. The 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.600 team is headed by Dr h Alan Heineck of Northwestern University, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.920 who was the Air Force Scientific Adviser on project of 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.600 Blue Book. That's the Air Force project to investigate UFO 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:04.760 reports w j RS Bill Jolls, contact of the Momentary 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.520 Cheaper Blood projects of White Potters and Air Force Base 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.600 near Dayton, Major Hector's Lindonella and had some questions for 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.519 the leaguer about the investigations. No, one of the things 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:23.920 that general mentors the public and you know, like I 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:29.640 mean so many you received word uh, any other organization 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.760 perhaps or radar you know with one of the Air 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:37.079 Force bases or something is also spotting these. We are contact, 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:41.960 try to defend devided nothing and needs you need now 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.800 is investigation in tale we'll talk and do the deep 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:52.160 collection trancition. What obsurred, trying to den turn motivity and 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:58.120 caring to conceded in that fashion. Alan Heineck hit the 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.080 ground in Michigan with two ex dictations of him find 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.480 an explanation for these sightings and find it fast. It 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.960 would not prove to be that easy. Host of the 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:15.600 Sascer Life podcast, Aaron Gallias. What he finds are that 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.000 the witness statements are while there's a lot of them, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.760 they aren't necessarily consistent. And Heinek at this time had 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.320 been involved in Air Force investigations of UFOs since the 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.320 ninet and in one capacity or another, and he was 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:37.040 getting very frustrated, not only with the Air forces seeming 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:42.360 reluctance to dedicate serious scientific sort of resources to this, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.680 but also with what he would call the quality of 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:46.520 some of the witness statements that he was having to 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.760 deal with. It's hard to take a scientific approach sometimes 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.520 when you don't have sort of the raw materials of 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:57.520 evidence to work with. Heineck's interviews were not limited to eyewitnesses. 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.600 Because the sightings took place You're ann Arbor, home of 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.720 the University of Michigan, he was able to meet with 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:10.160 local experts in astronomy, botany, and other subjects, hoping they 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:17.200 might help uncover a prosaic explanation, author Mark O'Connell. And 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.480 after interviewing all these people over the course of several days, 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.560 Heinech he's he's been getting pressure the whole time he's 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.000 in Michigan from his boss holder press conference. Tell everybody 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.600 it was just nothing, Tell them it was just something natural. 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.120 Quentinila's pressure meant that Heinech had to come up with 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:39.200 a quick solution, too quick Heineck believed for an investigation 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.400 to truly get to the bottom of this series of sightings, 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.400 I think is resisting because he says, well, I don't 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.120 know what it is. I don't know what they saw, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.320 so I don't want to have a press conference until 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.200 I can say something that I really believe is true. Well, 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.159 his boss at Project Luba Hector Kingtonia, basically says, no, 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.440 you're doing a press conference Friday at five period. You're 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.520 doing a press prenference and you're going to give the 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:09.040 media a natural explanation for what's going on. He goes 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.159 to this press conference and it becomes incredibly famous in 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.839 Ufo lore, and it's it's well known in the region 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.599 there in southeast Michigan. Even people who aren't Ufo people 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:20.240 have kind of a sort of folk memory of this. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.400 He basically says, in a roundabout way that what what 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:30.679 was seen at various places by various witnesses matches many 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:36.400 of the conditions required for ignited swamp gas. Now, the 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.240 term swamp gas is unfortunate because why you still might 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.000 not believe that it is the cause of the sightings. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.719 It's not as ridiculous as it sounds. It's a real phenomenon, 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.000 but the pressure was such that Heinech had to go 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.320 with it because it was the best he could do 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:58.560 in that time frame. Here's Heinek talking about this explanation 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.880 on Voice of America DA. And let me remind you 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.600 that all that was described, with the exception of two people, 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:13.880 The great majority of the people described only lights a 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:20.440 glow and rather small red, yellow, and green lights. Now, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.760 the fact that this occurred near a swamp or at 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.800 a swamp in both cases a great number of observers 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:35.279 were referring to that. Those two events led me to 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.200 follow that as a clue. Now, an astronomer doesn't usually 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.760 worry about swamps. His eyes are looking elsewhere generally, but 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.760 in a in his rapid and as thorough away as 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.799 was possible in that time. I did UH notice, for instance, 0:06:55.839 --> 0:07:00.760 that in Professor Minaret's book and Minhart as an astronomer, 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.040 he describes in his book light and Color in the 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:10.520 Open Air. He describes lights of these colors green, red, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:17.560 and yellow and white h as dancing around swamp areas. 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:25.280 The willow lewis sometimes called Egnis factors and UH known 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.800 by other names. Also. I believe fox fire is another 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:34.560 name given to it. Heinich talked with professors of chemistry, zoology, 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.600 and botany to get more information. He learned that the 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:43.320 vegetation decomposing under the winter ice would produce gases, including 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:49.840 one called phosphene. And the phosphene can, they tell me 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:57.200 spontaneously ignite after the when the spring thaw comes and 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:01.200 the gases can be can bubble up from and get released. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:07.080 The guesses can ignite spontaneously, and they flicker all over 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.000 other place, though flicker at one place, then go out 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:15.160 and suddenly appear someplace else, which gives the delusion of motion. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.960 And this description fit quite well the description that both 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:27.440 the many co eds at the Hillsdale College uh told me, 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.960 and also the policeman who were actually in the swamp 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.480 and saw off the lights themselves. Remember Bud van Horne's 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.920 description of the lights that he saw near Hillsdale College 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.280 to be on the surface of the earth on the ground. However, 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.320 I don't feel that it was, because it moved very 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.440 freely from left to right and right to left at 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:56.200 various times, which it would be impossible for a type 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.080 of week ago on wheels or on the ground. Too 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:08.760 that because of the market portion area. Heinik went on 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.800 to specify that the swamp gas explanation applied only to 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:16.680 this case and not as an explanation for UFO sightings 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:21.360 in general. But I would like to emphasize here that 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.840 this does not, in no sense of the word, this 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.640 particular explanation which refers to these two specific cases. Am 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:36.520 I trying to give a blanket interpretation or a blanket 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:42.120 solution to the entire uful phenomenon. Given the pressure he 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.880 was under, this was the best Heineck could do. But 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:47.800 while a case could be made that this was a 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:52.199 plausible explanation, the nuances were lost on the press, who 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:57.560 not surprisingly fixated on the term swamp gas. He doesn't 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.960 say that that is what it is. It just said 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.760 this is one possibility of what people might have seen 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:08.120 that is an explainable, sort of supportable thing. He doesn't 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.880 come out and say it was swamp gas. But what's 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.080 reported in the media is Air Force says UFO sightings 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:19.160 are swamp gas. Basically, a flying saucer expert hired by 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.880 the Air Force today dismissed reports of weird flying object 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.839 excited throughout southern Michigan this past week. Dr J. Alan 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.720 Heinick told a news conference in Detroit this afternoon, and 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.200 this leads to a huge backlash against the Air Force, 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:39.400 which is accused of not taking witnesses seriously, not taking 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:44.280 the subject seriously. The public dissatisfaction was taken up by 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.680 future President Gerald Ford, who at the time was a 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.920 Michigan Congressman and minority leader of the House of Representatives. 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:57.000 The Congress should investigate the rank of reported sightings of 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.320 unidentified flying objects in Southern men and other parts of 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:07.320 the country. A congressional inquiry would be most worthwhile because 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:12.600 the American people are becoming most interested in in many instances, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:17.400 very alarmed by the UFO story. I firmly believe the 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:20.920 American people would feel much better if there was a 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:27.520 full blown investigation of the life incidents. A second Congressman, 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:33.000 Edward Rausch of Indiana, also express frustration with the official explanation. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:39.359 People want to know what a UFO is, and therefore 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.320 any chance that we have to to learn, we should 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.840 take advantage of us. When you tell them American, I 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.720 can't explain it. He wants to know, why can't you 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.040 explain it? Why doesn't someone explain it? I want someone 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.640 to explain it. And I think that kind of pressure 0:11:55.760 --> 0:12:00.040 is going to change the view of many government on 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.480 officials and members of Congress in the future. The swamp 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:09.960 gas explanation, whatever its merits, had only increased suspicion that 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.520 the government was not acting in good faith. As the 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:18.320 face of the investigation, Heinich was the obvious target, and 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.880 he just he's getting squeezed in this vice because on 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.880 the one hand, all his UFO friends are furious with 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.000 him because they all thought this was the big one, right, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:31.520 this is the case that nobody can explain away. This 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.240 is the case that proves that we're being visited by 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.440 spaceships from another world, and Heineck didn't give them that. Meanwhile, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.040 the people in Michigan were also furious with him because 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.319 he seemed to be saying that you people in Michigan 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.080 are a bunch of dopes and you can't tell swamp 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.480 gas from a UFO, and what is wrong with you. 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:54.080 Heineck felt that his scientific objectivity was being called into question, 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.920 that he was viewed as a mouthpiece for government obfuscation. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.240 Some of the lawnforcement officers in Michigan that that Heinech 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.920 dealt with Bud van Horne, for example, who has involved 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.160 his a civil defense official and law enforcement officer connected 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.719 to the Hillsdale sidings. He believed the hine came in 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:17.679 with his mind already made up. Bud van Horn, you 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.400 both in fact, he watched one last time. I wondered, 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:22.440 do you going on to the theory and Mr Van 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.000 Horne that it would be gas out there? Because this 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.200 definitely not Bob, very definitely not Bob. I would like 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.600 to ask Mr Van Horne, when you didn't report this 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:35.880 to the nearest Air Force and had them send some 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.000 planes over to investigate what this thing actually was while 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:43.320 he watched it from the eleven until two. Because on 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.520 the previous reports to self rate the air Force base, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.320 I have received very far reception and he had been 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:57.200 made to look like a very uh ignorant person. Really, 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.800 I can't figure this solved. They had this US hole 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:05.120 investigating program. But if I had to give an eye opinion, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:07.640 I would say a lot of and say either they 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:13.280 just playing our answer every report they receive remains means 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.160 to favor words, or else they know what it is. 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.400 It's evident in hindsight that whatever else you think of 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.840 Heineck's investigations, he did seem to be genuinely trying to 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.120 figure things out. While he was initially a skeptic, he 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:35.560 didn't undertake investigations with the predetermined conclusion in mind, regardless 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.120 of how it looked to the public. After this, heine 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:41.640 begins to realize more and more that the Air Force 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:47.800 is not necessarily interested in determining what people might be seeing. 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.680 They're really just interested in clearing the cases and ensuring 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.520 that people don't think that it's anything out of the ordinary, 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.720 and that he's sort of been playing a role in this. 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:03.000 But the way Blue Book operated helped contribute to that perception. 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.120 So I think this, especially the way the Air Force 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.920 sort of positioned him as almost the public face of 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.240 their ridiculous explanation, put him more on guard with with 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:16.200 respect to how the Air Force handled things and pushed 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.080 him more towards trying to investigate things more with an 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.400 open mind. And this was the point at which heine said, 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:24.640 you know what, I'm not going to let the Air 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:26.560 Force put me in this situation again. I'm not going 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.600 to carry their water anymore. And at the same time, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.080 Heineck's name had been all over the news. People outside 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.080 of Michigan and who weren't part of the small population 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:43.680 of UFO enthusiasts identified Heinich as the expert on UFOs. 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.800 There was this vast middle ground of people who thought, Wow, 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.760 this guy knows what he's talking about. This is the 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.360 guy who knows all about UFOs. All of a sudden, 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.240 and I would see this researching his files. There's this 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.480 transition between early nineteen sixty six and later in nineteen 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.120 sixty six, when all of a sudden, his correspondence in 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.520 his files just expands like you wouldn't believe. Heinek was 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.960 getting fan letters from people all over the country, all 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.120 over the world, people saying, I want to tell you 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.000 about my experience. I want to tell you about this 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.160 thing I saw, I want to tell you about my 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.880 theory of of reality. He was just getting fan letters 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.240 from people everywhere. So even though the swamp Gass case 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.840 at first glance looked like it could have basically ruined Heineck, 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.960 it could have destroyed him in a very strange way, 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.200 it made him more popular and more credible than ever. 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.400 People around the country, but especially in Michigan, insisted that 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:48.120 the swamp gas explanation could not stand. They wanted accountability. 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:53.200 They wanted Congress to step in. So Gerald Ford and 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:56.280 another one of his colleagues in the Congress actually held 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.200 hearings just a couple of weeks after all of these 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:04.080 events took place. Heineck, of course, was the star witness. 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.760 His boss, Hector Kingtonia had basically told him you stick 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.479 with the company line or else. Well, Heinick didn't want 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.320 to do that. This is how much Heineck had change. 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:14.800 He was now willing to buck, really openly buck his 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.240 superiors at the Air Force. When it became Heineck's time 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:23.119 to address the Senate Panel, the Senate Committee, instead of 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:27.800 towing the company line, Heinech pulled out a like five 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.720 page prepared statement that he had not cleared with his 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.359 bosses at the Air Force at all. This was a 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.440 complete surprise to the Air Force people. Heineck pulls out 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.680 this prepared statement and he reads it to the Congress 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.679 people and he makes the case for we need to 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.960 get together the country's brightest scientists, and we need to 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.359 fund a study program by which these scientists can spend 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:53.199 all the time and all the resources they need to 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:59.560 investigate these really important cases. What Heinick was doing was 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.719 calling for an investigation by people outside of the military 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.920 into the cases that had proved most difficult to explain. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.760 But even when the military wasn't involved, they were involved. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.600 Although the Air Force wouldn't run the program, they would 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:20.840 organize it. There were calls in Congress for a more 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.560 scientific approach to this, and so the Air Force was 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.639 basically commissioned by Congress and funded by Congress to bring 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.440 together scientists from all over the country and give them 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:37.480 a bunch of reports from the Air Forces Project Bluebook 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.880 effort and have these scientists sort of independently review these reports. 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:47.720 In April one, one month after the sighting at Manner Farm, 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.480 Gerald Ford, a man who would soon as sent to 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.000 the Presidency, sent out a press release taking credit for 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.320 pressuring the Air Force into quote arranging for a study 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.120 by high caliber scientists of some of the UFO sightings 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:09.040 which have never been explained. Retired Air Force pilot James mcgahey, 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:11.480 they wanted m I. T to do it, and m 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.840 my team told him where they could go. They were 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.280 not interested at all. They got Dr Edwin Condon at 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.720 University of Colorado to accept it. He was a had 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.480 been chairman of the National Bureau of Standards. He was 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.199 a very famous quantum mechanics physicist, one of the great 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:34.120 of the twentieth century. He was a very, very imminent scientist. 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.840 He put together a team to do the investigation, which 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:44.080 became known as the Condent Report, and that team for 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:49.160 about two years investigating current sightings in the Best Cases 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:54.200 in Blue Book. On October seven, a press release from 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.480 the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.760 Affairs announced that the Universe the of Colorado had been 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.199 given a contract of more than three hundred thousand dollars 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:10.720 to quote analyze phenomena associated with UFO sightings and to 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.919 make recommendations on the Air Forces methods of investigating and 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:20.560 evaluating UFO reports. Congress had signaled that they were serious 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:24.639 about the UFO question. Heinick was no longer responding to 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.520 the Air forces pressure to explain away compelling UFO sightings. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.879 The committee began their work in November after the break 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:59.600 after the Michigan UFO wave of j Alan, Heinik found 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.320 himself off in the strange position of having both experienced 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:07.960 his greatest professional humiliation and at the same time risen 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:13.879 to prominence as the publicly recognized expert on UFOs. In 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.280 the last episode, we looked at the archetypal story of 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.760 the hero's journey, where the hero goes from normal life 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.240 and there's a mysterious or mystical world where he fights 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:28.679 a battle and emerges back into the normal world, transformed 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.720 and with a message. We tracked how Heinich left the 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.199 normal world of an academic to immerse himself in the 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:40.960 investigation of UFO sightings taking place across the country, and 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.520 while the vast majority of cases were easily solved, that 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.560 left a small number that defied explanation. Given the available 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:56.280 resources these cases Socorro, New Mexico, Hillsdale County, Michigan, and others, 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:02.480 and the Air Forces seemingly prioritizing public debunking over actual investigation, 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:07.879 lad Heineck to a crisis of conscience. What exactly was 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:12.320 the nature of the project he was spearheading. The review, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.560 organized by the Air Force and known informally as the 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:20.879 Condon Committee, began work at the University of Colorado. It 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.280 was the final opportunity for the official assessment of the 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:30.040 UFO situation to match up with Heeneck's evolving views. Things 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:36.560 seem set up well to accomplish this. Aaron Gullias, Now, 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:42.160 this was the sort of thing that UFO advocates, like 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:47.680 the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon or NIGHTCAP and 0:22:47.800 --> 0:22:51.040 its leader Donald Kehoe, had been pushing for a long time. 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:58.320 UFO advocates believed and declared that if the UFO topic 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:01.960 could be taken out of the Air Force's hands and 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:06.760 put in the hands of independent scientists, that those scientists would, 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.480 you know, looking at things rationally and objectively, come to 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.520 the conclusion that we were being visited by beings from 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:19.080 outer space, that at least some of the sightings were extraterrestrial. 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.720 The Air Force had succeeded in covering this up, but 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:24.720 if we could take it away from the Air Force 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.399 give it to scientists, the truth would come out. So 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.479 there was a lot of initial hope from the UFO 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:34.560 people that the CONDOM Committee would would come up with 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:37.840 the truth about or the truth as they wanted it 0:23:38.000 --> 0:23:44.359 found about about UFOs. Heineck himself express optimism that the 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:50.480 committee shared his outlook. This is Heinik from his February 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:57.280 seven appearance on k ABC TVs press conference. The kind 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:59.840 of committee, and Colorado has in charge now with the 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:05.240 responsibility of taking a scientific look at UFOs and ed condons. 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:07.919 Has was for years, as you know, in the director 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:13.760 of the view of Standards, and they very solid person 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:21.000 in his whole field. But as you probably suspected, he 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:24.960 was disappointed when the report was finally released in nineteen 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:31.200 sixty nine, the Condom Committee issues their report. Their report, 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:35.760 their conclusions are basically not too different from what the 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:40.199 Air Force had said in their Project Bluebook investigations. Basically, 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:46.119 the vast majority of sightings that people report are the 0:24:46.200 --> 0:24:53.200 result of people misidentifying planets, stars, satellites conventional aircraft. These 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:58.000 sightings could in overwhelming numbers be explained, and while there 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:01.879 was a significant number of cases that could not be 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:07.639 immediately explained in a conventional manner, that does not prove 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:13.400 that these are alien craft. Visiting Heineck found this acknowledgement 0:25:13.560 --> 0:25:17.679 that there were unexplainable cases hardening, despite the fact that 0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:21.840 the report's conclusion and the summary released by Condon himself 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:28.160 were definitive in dismissing the UFO issue. Surprisingly, the count 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:30.879 of Committee built their final report, they built a pretty 0:25:30.880 --> 0:25:35.240 strong case for the continued study of UFOs, and Heineck 0:25:35.240 --> 0:25:40.040 found that very encouraging. For instance, Heineck noted that one 0:25:40.080 --> 0:25:43.240 of the common features of many UFO sightings was that 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:46.880 car engines and radios would fail, and he was pleased 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.400 that the Connan Committee would look at this phenomenon. This 0:25:50.480 --> 0:25:56.119 is Heinik again from his interview with k ABC. Cannot 0:25:56.160 --> 0:25:59.280 speak for them obviously, but I understand that they are 0:25:59.440 --> 0:26:04.880 undertaking investigations of physical things, for instance things many many 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:09.320 reports come in saying that persons car was stopped, UFO 0:26:09.520 --> 0:26:11.840 came by and their car stopped, and when up left 0:26:12.400 --> 0:26:15.919 the car started again. And in the conclusion of the 0:26:15.960 --> 0:26:20.880 section on indirect physical evidence, the report reads of all 0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:23.880 the physical effects claimed to be due to the presence 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:28.760 of UFOs, the alleged malfunction of automobile motors is perhaps 0:26:28.760 --> 0:26:33.600 the most puzzling. The claim is frequently made, sometimes in 0:26:33.680 --> 0:26:38.439 reports which are impressive because they involved multiple independent witnesses. 0:26:39.720 --> 0:26:42.560 Witnesses seem certain that the function of the cars was 0:26:42.600 --> 0:26:46.960 affected by the unidentified object, which sometimes reportedly was not 0:26:47.119 --> 0:26:52.520 seen until after the malfunction was noted. No satisfactory explanation 0:26:52.600 --> 0:26:57.640 for such effects, if indeed they occurred is apparent, so 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:03.760 still puzzling. Unfortunately, the head of the committee, Condon, wrote 0:27:03.760 --> 0:27:06.840 a summary of the report in which he just completely 0:27:06.960 --> 0:27:10.960 demolished the idea of UFOs, said, they're ridiculous. It's a 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:12.520 waste of time and a waste of money to be 0:27:12.560 --> 0:27:16.960 studying these things. And a lot of people who read 0:27:17.000 --> 0:27:21.320 the report simply read Condon's summary and didn't read the 0:27:21.320 --> 0:27:26.400 whole thing, and those parts were unsparing in their assessment. 0:27:27.760 --> 0:27:30.840 The second paragraph of the first section of the Condon 0:27:30.960 --> 0:27:36.240 report says, quote, our general conclusion is that nothing has 0:27:36.280 --> 0:27:39.080 come from the study of UFOs in the past twenty 0:27:39.080 --> 0:27:44.880 one years that has added to scientific knowledge. Careful consideration 0:27:44.960 --> 0:27:48.400 of the record as it is available to us leads 0:27:48.480 --> 0:27:52.879 us to conclude that further extensive study of UFOs probably 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:56.760 cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be 0:27:56.840 --> 0:28:02.080 advanced thereby. Later, in the same section, it concluded that 0:28:02.119 --> 0:28:06.280 there was no defense value in continuing this work. Quote 0:28:06.880 --> 0:28:10.680 This question is inseparable from the question of the national 0:28:10.760 --> 0:28:15.000 defense interests of these reports. The history of the past 0:28:15.040 --> 0:28:18.919 twenty one years has repeatedly led Air Force officers to 0:28:18.960 --> 0:28:22.760 the conclusion that none of the things seen or thought 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:25.359 to have been seen which passed by the name of 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:30.760 UFO reports constituted any hazard or threat to national security, 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:34.800 much as was the case with the Robertson panel, there 0:28:34.880 --> 0:28:38.160 were grumblings that the connon Committee had begun their work 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:43.080 with the conclusion predetermined. The most notable piece of evidence 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:46.680 for this assertion is a memo written by an assistant 0:28:46.720 --> 0:28:50.920 dean at the University of Colorado named Robert Lowe to 0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:55.640 two men in the university hierarchy. At the time, the 0:28:55.760 --> 0:28:59.280 university had not yet committed to undertaking the committee work 0:28:59.720 --> 0:29:03.400 and are evaluating if they should do so. The memos 0:29:03.440 --> 0:29:07.920 summarizes various faculty members arguments for and against taking it on. 0:29:09.080 --> 0:29:14.280