Terence Hines - Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

Physical effects, as well as hard evidence, have been attributed to UFOs by witnesses. The stalled car is one of the most common. The usual scenario is that a UFO appears and the witness reports that the car he or she was driving stalled at about the same time. UFO proponents explain that, somehow, the strong magnetic field that powers the UFO interferes with the car’s electrical system, causing the stall. It is possible to test such an explanation. Any magnetic field strong enough to cause such a disruption of an automobile’s electrical system would leave clear traces in the metal of the engine. The Condon Committee (Condon 1969) studied two cars that allegedly stalled because of proximity to UFOs. In neither case could any change in the magnetic characteristics of the metal of the engine be found. Had the automobiles actually been exposed to magnetic fields strong enough to cause electrical system failure, such changes would have been clear and easy to detect.

What causes these seemingly UFO-related stalls? Most likely the excitement of the witness. Emotional arousal leads to poorer performance of many manual tasks (Welford 1976). Under the conditions of extreme emotional arousal experienced by many UFO witnesses, people become much less able to engage in manual tasks such as shifting gears properly. Improper shifting can result in a stall.

Another explanation for the stalls is that witnesses incorrectly attribute normal engine failures to the UFO. Perhaps the car stalls every other day or so. When no UFO is present, the stall isn’t thought to be anything other than an annoyance. But when the stall coincidentally happens when a UFO is seen, then the stall is suddenly transformed into something mysterious, and is attributed to the UFO. Similar incorrect attributions of engine failures were noted in England during World War II in areas where radar was being used. Radar was then top secret, and residents living near radar towers had no idea what the towers were for. They began complaining that the towers were causing their cars to stall, although it is impossible for radar to cause engine failure. When the true purpose of the radar towers was revealed, the reports of mysterious stalling promptly stopped (Condon 1969).

An interstellar ship develops engine trouble. It drops out of hyperspace and the captain finds himself (herself? itself?) near a planet. A quick scan shows that the planet is inhabited by intelligent beings who have not yet learned the secret of space flight. Nonetheless, the situation is desperate, so the decision is made to land in a relatively uninhabited area to make repairs. Just as the ship is entering the planet’s atmosphere, a catastrophe occurs, and the ship explodes with the force of many nuclear bombs. The few primitive inhabitants in the area look up in wonder. Years later, scientific expeditions to the site reveal to the natives of the planet clear evidence of the spaceship’s explosion and, thereby, of the existence of extraterrestrial space-traveling beings.

UFO enthusiasts claim this story is not science fiction but a true description of what happened over Siberia on June 30, 1908. (Some authors give the date as June 22, which was the Russian date. In 1908 Russia had not yet converted to the Gregorian calendar.)

Something clearly happened in Siberia that day in 1908. When the first scientific expedition arrived in the area in the late 1920s, much devastation was found—even after nearly twenty years. Trees had been blown down for miles around “ground zero.” But those who argue that the Tunguska event was caused by an exploding UFO fabricate evidence to support their explanation and selectively omit evidence that argues against the UFO explanation.

If a nuclear-powered UFO were the cause of the Tunguska event, one would expect to find abnormally high levels of radioactivity in the area. In their 1976 book The Fire Came By, television drama critics Thomas Atkins and John Baxter state that high levels of radioactivity consistent with the exploding-UFO hypothesis have been found at the site. Erich von Daniken (1970) says the explosion “must have been a nuclear one” (p. 147). Oberg (1978–79b) and Story (1976, chap. 10) have both reviewed the evidence on this point. In fact, their reviews show that no abnormal radioactivity is present at the Tunguska site. Reports of high levels of radioactivity are due to Russian physicist Aleksey Zolotov, who has “organized several college expeditions to the Tunguska site and made a series of announcements of ‘abnormal radioactivity,’ followed by embarrassed retractions” (Oberg 1978–79b, p. 52).

The usual scientific explanation of the Tunguska explosion is that a meteorite entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded before striking the ground. This explanation would demand that a crater be found, and UFO proponents point out that no crater was ever found. That’s true. But a group of ten craters was found, all at the center of the blast area, with sizes ranging from 30 to 160 feet across and an average depth of 10 feet (Story 1976). This is just what would be expected from the explosion of a large meteorite that produced smaller chunks that then struck the ground.

UFO proponents also claim that no trace of a meteorite has ever been found. But meteorites are generally composed of nickel and iron, and a high concentration of tiny nickel-iron fragments about 0.1 mm in size has been found at the center of the blast zone (Buchwald 1975, pp. 9–10).

UFO reports in which the witnesses either see the occupants of the UFO or are actually abducted by a UFO are certainly the most dramatic. In the 1950s such individuals were referred to as “contactees” and their stories were not taken seriously even by most UFO organizations. Things changed in the early 1960s with what is still the most famous CE III—Betty and Barney Hill’s alleged abduction by UFO occupants. This case was brought to the public’s attention by John Fuller’s (1966) The Interrupted Journey and his sensational series of articles in Look magazine.

The standard version of what has become almost a legend in UFO circles has the Hills driving back to their home in Exeter, New Hampshire, from Montreal on the night of September 19, 1961. While driving through New Hampshire’s White Mountains, they spot a UFO. It begins to follow their car. Barney Hill stops the car to get a better look at the UFO and sees windows in the object. Through the windows he sees the faces of the occupants. Frightened, he climbs back in the car and drives home, fearing capture. The Hills arrive home two hours later than normal and cannot account for the missing two hours. A week or so later Betty Hill begins to dream about being abducted and physically examined by UFO occupants. Several years later the Hills consult a psychiatrist because of marital problems. Under hypnosis, both the Hills tell separate, but mutually confirming, stories of being abducted and examined by the occupants of the UFO that had chased them several years before. This period of examination accounts for the lost two hours. Betty is able to draw a “star map” that shows the major trade routes through the stars used by the civilization that built the UFO that abducted them. The map is said to be almost identical to a group of stars that Betty could not have known. Finally, the legend goes, government records show that the UFO was tracked on several different radars that night. Betty Hill has claimed that seven separate radar confirmations of the UFO are known (Sheaffer 1981, p. 38).

This report is indeed impressive, if true. But, as is so often the case with UFO reports, the description presented to the public by credulous writers and investigators is very different from that which emerges after careful investigation.