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167The taxonomists in the days of my father, used to work in the musty smelly basement of the Field Museum sorting and identifying preserved dead plants and animals and rarely got out in the field. Today I assume taxonomists work in offices behind their computer screens as do the academics and intelligence analysts. Today just as yesterday these in house people tend on average to maintain a air of snobbery and quiet disdain for the collector or agent on the ground who is out mucking around getting his or her hands dirty and in direct contact with the data. This direct contact with the data it is believed by the analyst or taxonomist to somehow taint the collector or agent’s objectivity. On the other hand the collector or agent believes that analyst or taxonomist is living in a ivory tower out of touch with the real world and is incapable of properly filtering the data that comes to his or her desk. This is a very dysfunctional situation. In the intelligence world this can lead to disaster and in the field of exopolitics it has stymied progress amongst mainstream investigators. In the field of Exopolitics the mainstream investigat or and data collector sitting behind his or her computer excludes in my opinion the most significant data from his or her data base that will lead to the resolution of the UFO enigma. These errors in judgment keep the old guard investigator stopped in their tracks and unable to proceed further, while the new guard moves ahead. While the old guard hold to their faith that their failing methodologies will eventually solve the UFO enigma the new guard penetrates the problem with new and various multiple methodologies adapted to the task and hand. The old guard works to get better and better supe rficial pictures of the exterior of the enigma. They become increasing frustrated and disparage the new guard's more error prone flying by their seat of their pants methodologies. I don't see any problem with making errors except that people admit to errors and try to correct them. (See allegations make by Dr. Edgar Mitchell on Dr. Steven Greer's overreaching and apparent failure to make amends. Maybe the disagreement centers around just who is disclosure witness but Dr. Mitchell's feelings should be considered. I hope this dispute has been settled. http://www.rense.com/general10/mitch.htm ) Meanwhile the new guard is invited on board the spacecraft and begin to negotiate with the occupants. The old guard will think the new guard are nuts until the evidence becomes indisputable that some UFO are as Stanton Friedman is fond of saying, "are somebody else's spacecraft." It seems obvious that once a investigator realizes that some UFO's are somebody else’s spacecraft the next step is to get invited on board for tea, as Jack says, providing the occupants are cordial and friendly and respect basic human rights. I suspect all new fields that emerge out of older established fields or disciplines run into these very same problems that originate in the mind and the emotions of the participants. The experienced old guard become fixed and inflexible in their beliefs holding on to outdated methodologies that have worked in the past. The young with more open minds draw on the experience of the older generation but with more open minds move the field forward even though they are at times reckless. As we ended our walk through the forest, Jack commented to me that all methodologies and disciplines are faith based. The problem seems to be that most people as they age become heavily invested, mentally and emotionally, in their beli efs and are unable to detach from methodologies that are not keeping up with our ever changing perceptions of reality.