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THE GULF BREEZE FIASCO materialized. 170 REVELATIONS continue to peel away the deeper layers of the onion. Even if the process occasionally brings tears to our eyes. In the last three years an ominous trend has swept American ufology. It used to be that most of its members were motivated by sheer scien- tific curiosity. That was certainly my case, and I still hold stubbornly to the old-fashioned position that UFOs represent a genuine, unrecog- nized physical effect. I believe we could learn much from a good study. Many scientists disagree with this, arguing that the physical patterns are still unclear. My answer is that it could not be otherwise, since the scientific work has never been done. At several points during the Sixties and Seventies, Dr. Hynek and I thought it might be possible to get such research started under the proper standards, but the opportunity never The new fact is that the motivation of American ufologists them- selves has changed dramatically. The field has been overrun by people who don't need to undertake any real research, because they already know all the answers. Calling themselves scientists, although they have nei- ther the credentials nor, more importantly, the skills and the discipline of science, these people have driven away those who still wanted to approach the problem with the real standards of science. To further their own pet fantasies, they have created an atmosphere of sensational exploitation of the witnesses, forcing their traumatic experiences into a particular interpretation of the abduction-contact syndrome. This new trend has left the few struggling groups of U.S. amateurs intellectually bankrupt. The visible part of American ufology today involves crude methods of hypnotic regression aimed at uncovering what its proponents assume to be The Truth about alleged alien races that are invading us. The methods in question are worthless, and in my opinion, will eventually be exposed as such. In the meantime the un- trained amateurs who play such games are hurting the people who have come to them in anguish and in pain. Many such self-appointed thera-