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AREA 51 SEVEN about it." 79 PITFALLS The intelligence agencies often forget that before they can classify or censor a piece of data, it has to exist as a conscious thought in some- body's head. This is especially true of UFO data. It can be tracked down, investigated, and verified by anyone capable of independent thinking. But the pivotal keyword here is independent: truly unbiased investigation implies the careful recognition and deliberate avoidance of a few deadly pitfalls in reasoning. Therefore I will close this section by identifying the seven most dangerous pitfalls that tend to derail our thinking process. Pitfall One: the Transitivity of Strangeness We are all prone to this fallacy, which works as follows: someone makes an extremely strange statement we will call (A). For instance, (A) could be the assertion "I am in contact with an extraterrestrial civilization." When challenged to prove this assertion, the subject will make a second very strange statement we will call (B). For instance he or she might say, "They have given me the power to bend your spoon just by thinking Naturally you will challenge this second assertion by saying some- thing like "Oh yeah? Well, prove it, wise guy." In the next few minutes the subject proceeds to turn your spoon from a treasured heirloom to a pitiful, useless, unrecognizable shred of twisted metal, leaving you amazed and breathless. From then on you will probably tell all your friends that the individual in question is indeed in contact with extraterrestrials. A truly independent thinker, on the contrary, would have realized the fallacy. The subject has only demonstrated assertion (B), namely the fact that he could bend your spoon. We could debate whether this ability derives from paranormal powers which could be latent in all of us or whether trickery was involved. But in no way does it prove statement (A), namely the contact with space civilizations.