Day 3 Conference Summary

DAY 3 of the conference changed structure and was a relaxed, interactive open panel of researchers and discussion set aside to explore various issues relating to the alien abduction phenomenon. This worked well to freely include participation from the audience, who by day 3 were jumping out of their chairs brimming with input into the subject. Due to the interactive nature of the day it is difficult to report on it but some of the key points raised were as follows.
The following relate to research issues.

1. Lack of funding. Of course we know that many researchers perform great feats on a shoestring budget and often at personal cost to themselves. The point was made by John Auchettl during the conference the amount of resources available for the production of TV commercials with ET themes in the world today. John showed a montage of these that had budgets of over $100,000 in some cases and made the point of what the UFO community could do with resources of this magnitude.

Funding is vital and while we are achieving what we already achieve with very little we could accomplish much, much more with adequate funding.

2. Prompt response for quick recovery of evidence samples. Researchers are missing out on hard evidence due to the lack of prompt response times to investigations. Stale evidence leaves researchers with very little to work with in UFO cases.

3. Experts are needed. It was highly recommended that selected scientists be actively sought and brought on board (lured?) into the UFO research field to lend their expertise.

4. Better training. Within a field of lay people better training in how to gather and deal with evidence is needed. Evidence is often poorly gathered and mishandled introducing contamination and ill controlled sampling. There is also a lack of knowledge and training about how to correctly obtain samples too. (I have since thought more about this and would like to suggest the next conference hosts introduce a training day where those who have skills can share and train others)

5. Wider discussion of evidence and studies. Although evidence is gathered there is very little discussion of it unless it is published in a book or report often years after it has been obtained. Discussing evidence more openly may act as an aid to other researchers who are looking for the next step in their own research when none is obvious.

6. Directory of knowledge. it was unanimous that a directory of sorts be compiled giving contacts and resources available to the general public and other researchers. This was to include areas of interest and expertise of individual UFO researchers, professional resources, and any other useful information that may assist the general public and researchers.

All these points have great merit, as to what we will go on and do with them only time will tell.

Points and questions that emerged about the alien abduction issue are as follows;

1. Researchers are drawing conclusions about alien abduction experiences based on a self selected group of people who are only a small sampling of the phenomenon. So how accurate is any opinion? (anyone who understands how statistics work would recognize the down fall here of not having a
control group of the average population to compare a "self selected" sample of abductees with. The Roper report begins to deal with this but needs to be taken further)

2. Is having a difference of opinion about alien abductions a hindrance or a help to finding answers?

3. Who has a mandate on the truth?

4. Is our supposition that we could recognise the actions of an advanced society correct?

Of course there were other points made but it was difficult to keep track of them all. Perhaps those who attended could add to these.

At the end of this particular discussion it became very clear that there is a polarisation in the UFO community based on the key issue of abduction experiences being either good for humanity or not as Matthew has been demonstrating on this list. This is not new to Australian research and already exists globally. It is an important question which needs answering. How we will get those answers that go beyond opinion, well we should all be open to suggestions on this one.

Sheryl