Just found out about this ... wish I'd known sooner. Anyone near North Carolina able to attend and report?
2013 Symposium on Official and Scientific Investigations of UAP (UFOs) on June 29-30
War Memorial Auditorium Greensboro Coliseum ComplexTelephone: (336) 373-7400
Address: 1921 W. Lee Street. Greensboro, NC 27403
Website: http://www.greensborocoliseum.com
Tickets available at the Greensboro Coliseum Box Office,
Online at Ticketmaster.com, select Walmart locations or
Charge by phone at 800-745-3000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kphwlRBuZt4
www.cufornc.com | www.centerforuforesearch.com | Promoting a better understanding of UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) through research and investigations | 2013 Symposium | 2 Day Event at the Greensboro War Memorial Auditorium located in Greensboro, North Carolina. June 29 and June 30, 2013.
Conference SpeakersAMERICA
KENT SENTER
RACE AGAINST TIMEKENT SENTER is the host and organizer of the first annual Symposium on Official & Scientific Investigations of UAP (UFOs). He had a lengthy sighting in 1985, which changed his life. A UFO researcher for twenty-eight years, Senter was one of the founding members of MUFON's North Carolina chapter, launched in the late 1980's in collaboration with George Fawcett. Over the years, he has been a state section director and field investigator for MUFON. While battling an incurable cancer (multiple myeloma), he has decided to host this unique conference to help increase awareness of the need for scientific research and alleviate the taboo associated with this topic.
RICHARD HAINES
UAP AND FLIGHT SAFETY: THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP I will describe a number of in-flight close encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), as reported by air crews from around the world, in which safety was seriously impacted. In short, some UAP are a threat to flight safety. Three kinds of such incidents are documented: electro-magnetic effects on various airplane instruments and systems, disruption of cockpit coordination and communication, and sudden flight path disruption and/or near miss incidents. Despite their continuing occurrences around the world, these events are not reported sufficiently because of open ridicule and the invisible walls of silence that have been erected around this serious subject. To discard UAP evidence only because it does not fit easily or conveniently into the paradigms of science is not only non-scientific but is also stupid and potentially dangerous, leaving us blind to reality. I will make specific recommendations for improving this situation.
RICHARD HAINES is a senior research scientist who worked at NASA-Ames Research Center from 1967 - 1988 on projects such as Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the International Space Station, and managed the Joint FAA/NASA Head-up Display Evaluation Program. He was appointed Chief of the Space Human Factors Office at NASA-Ames in 1986. Dr. Haines has published more than seventy-five papers in leading scientific journals and over twenty-five U.S. government reports for NASA. Since retiring in 1988, he worked as a senior research scientist for the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science, RECOM Technologies, Inc., and Raytheon Corporation. Currently, he serves as Chief Scientist for the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), www.narcap.org.
CHARLES HALT
INCIDENT AT RAF BENTWATERS In 1980, I was the Deputy Base Commander of RAF Bentwaters in England, used by the United States Air Force during the Cold War. Two nights after a strange triangular craft landed just outside the base, I witnessed multiple UFOs at close range with four other military personnel, and documented these sightings on my pocket tape recorder as they occurred. One object sent down a concentrated beam near our feet; another sent down beams into or near the weapons storage area. The incident lasted several hours and is well-documented. It clearly involved unidentified objects under intelligent control. In my lecture, I will explain what happened, and provide some updates, including the fact that the Air Traffic Controllers from both Bentwaters and RAF Eastern Radar confirm the sightings.
CHARLES HALT was a Lt. Colonel when he was assigned to RAF Bentwaters, England – the largest Tactical Fighter Wing in the US Air Force - as Deputy Base Commander and then as Base Commander. After becoming a full colonel, he was Base Commander at Kunsan Air Base in Korea, the F-16 base responsible for any offensive action required on the Korean peninsula, and also was instrumental in establishing the Cruise Missile Base in Belgium. Finally, he served as Director, Inspections Directorate for the DoD Inspector General, with total inspection oversight of of all military services and defense agencies. Colonel Halt retired in 1991.
LESLIE KEAN
GOVERNMENT AND UFOsI will share some reflections from my thirteen-year journalistic investigation into UFOs. The US needs a small official agency to investigate selected cases. Governments in Europe and South America are actively conducting investigations, serving as models for the rest of the world. I will report on my visits with Chile's official group, which included attendance at an unusual meeting in Santiago at the Headquarters for the DGAC (the equivalent of our FAA). I was personally invited by the Director General of the DGAC to deliver a statement before six active Generals, an Admiral, university scientists, aviation specialists, and foreign attachés - all of whom take the subject seriously. Our own US Air Force Attaché was there as well. I will also present an extraordinary new case, exclusive for this conference, which has been officially investigated. Finally, I will offer a strategy for approaching our own government about investigating UAP.
LESLIE KEAN is an investigative journalist and author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record (Random House, 2010), a New York Times bestseller. She was interviewed about UFOs by CNN, MSNBC, FOX, the Colbert Report, Michio Kaku's Science Fantastic, NPR, USA Today, the Columbia Journalism Review, and many other media. In 2011 she co-produced a feature documentary for the History Channel based on her book. Kean's articles have been published widely in mainstream newspapers and magazines here and abroad. As cofounder of the Coalition for Freedom of Information, she was the plaintiff in a landmark Freedom of Information Act federal lawsuit against NASA. Kean was a producer and on-air host for Pacifica Radio, and is coauthor of Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity (Aperture, 1994). www.UFOsOnTheRecord.com
NANCY TALBOTT
THE SCIENCE OF CROP CIRCLES: IS THERE A CONNECTION TO UFOs?Research shows that some crop circles are not man-made. Abnormalities documented in these plants and soils and published in peer-reviewed papers are thought to be caused by very brief bursts of intense heat in association with unusual electrical pulses and strong magnetic fields. An in-depth XRD examination of soils in a Canadian crop circle (which involved multiple eyewitness accounts of UFOs over the field prior to the circle's discovery) documented changes to the crystalline structure of specific clay minerals. The study's renowned clay mineralogist concluded that this effect, which could also be due to intense heat, must have involved an energy-source "unknown to science." Detailed laboratory analyses of a deposit retrieved from a UFO landing in Poland near an active crop-circle location revealed highly-vitrified soil, a result again of exposure to intense heat. I will describe two genuine circles I personally witnessed forming, one which involved light phenomena and one which did not.
NANCY TALBOTT is President of the BLT Research Team Inc., a non-profit U.S. corporation which, for more than twenty years, has utilized the expertise of multiple professional scientists to examine remnant physical evidence recovered primarily from crop circle sites as well as from UFO "trace" cases and other "paranormal" events. Three papers published in peer-reviewed journals have presented BLT's crop circle findings, the only scientific information currently available on this subject. Ms. Talbott has lectured widely in the U.S. and Europe and participated in multiple TV shows and documentaries. She is co-author (with W.C. Levengood) of the 1999 paper "Dispersion of Energies in Worldwide Crop Formations " (Physiologia Plantarum (105: 615-624), 1999). www.bltresearch.com
ALEXANDER WENDT
MILITANT AGNOSTICISM AND THE UFO TABOOThis talk takes as its starting point the taboo in authoritative circles on taking UFO phenomena seriously. I make the case that human beings do not know for sure that UFOs are not extraterrestrial and therefore the taboo is irrational, since if there is even a small chance that UFOs are not from earth their discovery would be one of the most important events in human history. The remainder of the talk is given over to developing a political explanation for the persistence of the UFO taboo, focusing most importantly on the metaphysical threat that even the possibility of an extraterrestrial encounter poses to the anthropocentric organization of modern state sovereignty. I conclude with a proposal for moving the scientific study of UFOs forward in a way that does not depend on bringing governments on board.
ALEXANDER WENDT is Mershon Professor of International Security at the Ohio State University. Previously, he taught at Yale University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago. He is interested in philosophical aspects of international politics, and has published a number of articles in leading political science journals, as well as a 1999 book, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge University Press), which received the International Studies Association's "Best Book of the Decade Award" in 2006.
RON WESTRUM
HIDDEN EVENTSWhen an event is widely experienced but seldom reported, we can refer to it as a “hidden event.” Many anomalous events, including UFOs, by appearing to violate common sense or scientific paradigms, fall into this category. My talk considers three types of hidden events: meteorites (18th century), the battered child syndrome (20th century), and UFOs (current). By looking at earlier examples of public and scientific response to hidden events, we can get some idea of the probable response to a new hidden event. Commonsense ideas about what would happen may be mistaken. Scientists, in particular, may not behave “scientifically.” By looking at what has happened in the past, we can develop a more realistic approach to what may be going on around us. If UFOs are real, we need to know how much we can depend on the “social intelligence system” to tell us what is actually happening, because sometimes the system of information on which we depend hides rather than reveals what we need to know.
RON WESTRUM is emeritus professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University, holding an honors B.A. from Harvard in Social Relations and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago in Sociology. Dr. Westrum is a specialist on the sociology of science and technology, and has written books such as Technologies and Society: The Shaping of People and Things (1991), as well as Sidewinder: Creative Missile Design at China Lake (1999). He has written numerous articles on the sociology of hidden events, and is currently working on a book on anomalies and society, showing that events contradicting prevailing scientific doctrines can face significant hurdles even when evidence for them is strong. He has been a consultant for NASA, for the National Research Council, and also for the Mutual UFO Network.
BELGIUM
WILFRIED DE BROUWER
UAP WAVE OVER BELGIUM As a colonel and chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff, I presided over the Belgian Air Force investigation of a dramatic “wave” of sightings of unidentified triangular objects in 1989-91. I will provide an overview of the magnitude of this wave that consisted of approximately 2,000 reported sightings and more than 600 investigations. I will discuss a few remarkable observations and give a general description of the key characteristics of the objects. The approach at the ministerial and air staff level, which included specific actions taken in an attempt to identify the objects, will be explained. Furthermore, I will present the story of the famous photograph from Petit-Rechain that was declared to be fake, twenty years after it was taken. Lastly, I will recommend measures that should be taken to prepare for a more effective approach when such events occur.
WILFRIED DE BROUWER spent twenty years as a fighter pilot in the Belgian Air Force. He was then appointed to the Strategic Planning Branch of NATO in 1983, while a colonel. After that, he became Wing Commander of the Belgian Air Force Transport Wing and, in 1989, chief of the Operations Division in the Air Staff. Promoted to Major General in 1991, De Brouwer served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Belgian Air Force. Beginning in 1995, after retiring from the Air Force, he worked for more than ten years as consultant for the United Nations to improve the UN Logistics rapid response capabilities during emergencies.
CHILE
JOSE LAY
THE OFFICIAL UAP AGENCY IN CHILE: HOW WE WORK As one of four government staff working full time in an official agency investigating UAP, I will explain the motives that led to the formation of the official Committee to seriously investigate the phenomenon, and how it was originally established. I will describe the various obstacles we had to face and overcome. Most importantly, I will explain how we are structured and our methods for investigations now, which have earned support (and participation, when requested) from all branches of government, aeronautics, commercial airlines, radar operations, police and the military, which send representatives composing our various working committees. We also work closely with scientists from a range of disciplines from different universities. In Chile, the issue is taken very seriously. I will present some of our strongest multiple witness pilot cases with live voice recordings.
JOSE LAY is the International Affairs Director of the Chilean government agency investigating UAP, which is a branch of the General Administration of Civil Aeronautics, Chile's FAA, situated within the Air Force. The group is directed by General Ricardo Bermudez. Fluent in many languages, Lay has been working with this office since 1979. Responsible for all communications with other countries, he is currently securing formal agreements with other official UAP agencies around the world and advising on the development of such departments within some countries. This international cooperation generates uniform standards for protocols and policies for data analysis, transcending any political differences, and allows for cooperative study of this worldwide phenomenon.
FRANCE
XAVIER PASSOT
GEIPAN: THE OFFICIAL FRENCH BUREAU FOR UFO INVESTIGATIONSThe GEIPAN is the official French bureau, part of the CNES (National Centre for Space Studies, equivalent to NASA in the US), which has been in charge of investigating UFO sightings in France since 1977. The GEIPAN receives strange sighting reports every day from the French population. Its mission is to analyze those reports, find possible rational explanations, or classify the object seen as "unidentified." The results of the investigations are then published on a web site. My lecture will explain the history of the GEIPAN, its organization, and the methods used for these tasks. A statistical overview of our large data-base of 2200 reports will be presented. Most sightings can be explained, but some recent unidentified sigthings will be presented, with their possible explanations. I will end with some recommendations for observers and investigators.
XAVIER PASSOT is a computer scientist engineer by training. He joined the CNES in 1983. He has been in charge of several satellite monitoring and control subsystems (on board and on ground) and has been responsible for the development of a remote sensing image processing center for the SPOT4 and SPOT5 satellites, and for a data processing center of the GAIA european astrometry satellite (to be launched late 2013). Passot was appointed head of the GEIPAN in July, 2011 after having worked with his predecessor for several months. He enjoys photography (he learned the digital image processing with remote sensing pictures in the 1990's) and has been an amateur astronomer since 1983. http://www.cnes-geipan.fr
IRAN
PARVIZ JAFARI
DOGFIGHT OVER TEHRAN In 1976, as a major and squadron commander, I was ordered by the Air Force Command to approach a brilliant object observed over Tehran, with another pilot in my F-4 fighter-bomber jet. I will describe what happened during the lengthy event and afterwards. It involved a wild cat and mouse chase, during which I attempted to launch missiles at round "projectiles" coming towards me from the large object, suspended in the sky and flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue light. My weapons jammed and my radio communications were garbled when I flew too close. The object was pursued by a second jet, recorded by on-board radar, and observed by multiple credible military and aviation witnesses. A US government officer took notes at my debriefing afterward for a detailed US Defense Intelligence Agency document, which states that “this case is a classic that meets all the necessary conditions for a legitimate study of the UFO phenomenon.”
PARVIZ JAFARI is a retired General of the Iranian Air Force. After joining the Air Force, he spent two years training in the United States, at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Craig A.F.B in Alabama, and Nellis A.F.B in Nevada. In his country, Jafari served as a base commander for several bases and an Air Force Headquarters operations officer. As a General, Jafari became the coordinating officer between the Iranian Army, Navy and Air Force. He retired in 1989 and now lives in Canada.
UK
TIMOTHY GOOD
NEED TO KNOW: UFOs, THE MILITARY & INTELLIGENCE I will present an illustrated history of UFO phenomena, dating from thousands of years ago to the present, which includes previously top-secret documents, such as one covering the 1933 landing of an unknown flying machine in Italy. The post WWII era will feature details of an “air war” with UFOs, a 1950 Canadian government document confirming that “flying saucers” were classified higher than the H-bomb, and contact reported by a former Royal Air Force deputy chief of Strike Command. Government involvement throughout the world will be discussed, such as the 1977 establishment of a top-secret, 10-year investigation program in the former USSR. Pilots' reports of UFOs will be presented, one involving two airliners harassed by a giant triangular craft during their final approach to Dublin airport in 2004. I will show some clear photos of unidentified craft, and conclude with a page from a lengthy “Top Secret/Umbra” National Security Agency document dealing with the UFO problem.
TIMOTHY GOOD has lectured at the Royal Canadian Military Institute, Royal Naval Air Station Portland, the House of Lords All-Party UFO Study Group, the Institute of Medical Laboratory Sciences and the Oxford and Cambridge Union Societies, and to many schools throughout the U.K. In 1998 he was invited to the Pentagon to discuss his subject at the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, and at the headquarters of the French air force in 2002. He has also acted as a consultant for several U.S. Congress investigations. Good’s first book, Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up (1987) became an instant bestseller and was followed by ten more books, including Need to Know: UFOs, the Military & Intelligence (2007). His latest work, Earth: An Alien Enterprise, is due for publication by Pegasus Books (New York) in September. A member of the Royal Society of Musicians, Good is a professional violinist and has played with all London’s leading orchestras, as well as with numerous pop musicians, including George Harrison, Sir Paul McCartney and U2.
BOOK SIGNINGSaturday, 6:15 - 6:45 pm
Leslie Kean, author of the bestselling UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, and five contributors with chapters in her book will be at a table to sign copies of the paperback edition, available at the conference. Officials from the French and Chilean agencies can also sign. A rare opportunity for signatures from around the world!
JEFFREY BENNETT
SPECIAL SCIENCE LECTURE
DINNER SPEAKER, Saturday, 8 pm, astrophysicist and astronomer JEFFREY BENNETT
Check tickets page for more information.
BEYOND UFOs: THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE AND ITS ASTONISHING IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR FUTURE Is there really life beyond Earth? Astrophysicist Jeffrey Bennett will talk about why this question has become a hot topic of scientific research, and discuss how scientists are searching both for microbial life and extraterrestrial intelligence. Among other topics, the talk will include recent discoveries on Mars and the Kepler satellite's detection of earth-like planets orbiting other stars. We'll also see why the possibility of life beyond Earth has profound implications to the future of our species, even in the unlikely event that we are alone in the universe. There will be ample time for Q & A following the lecture.
Astronomer and author JEFFREY BENNETT was on the faculty in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado until 2001, and is currently an Adjunct Research Associate, Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, U. Colorado. He is the lead author of college textbooks in astronomy, astrobiology, mathematics, and statistics that have sold more than 1 million copies, and of critically acclaimed books for the general public including Beyond UFOs (Princeton University Press, 2008/2011), which forms the basis of his talk at this conference, Math for Life (Roberts & Company 2012), and the forthcoming What is Relativity? (Columbia University Press, 2014). His extensive educational experience includes teaching at every level from preschool through graduate school, proposing and helping to develop the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and serving two years as a Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters. He is also the author of the children's book Max Goes to the Moon, which was read aloud from the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2011 and is now a multimedia planetarium show.
