Skepticism about Selected Paranormal Events_____ 107
unexplained cases in the same neighborhood as the above figure when he said
that:
Over the 20 years [since about 1947], my personal statistics
show that out of 10,137 cases, 557 are listed as Unidentified
and 1822 as Insufficient Data The Blue Book handout reports
that only 5.4% of the cases remain Unidentified, conveniently
forgetting that 1822 additional cases, or 17.6%, remain
unexplained. The correct figure of unidentified should
therefore be 23% [i.e., approximately 548 cases].
Therefore, and contrary to what some skeptics believe (i.e., Shermer,
2003), unresolved aspects of UFO cases could be the reason that smart people
believe in weird things. Moreover, the refusal of the government to turn over
unedited documents related to UFO sightings apparently have not helped to
quash belief in such incidents. Instead, this behavior, national security
notwithstanding, has fueled the belief that the government’s edited documents
perhaps justify claims that the country’s national security is at risk. What does
national security have to do with UFOs when the government tells its citizens
and the scientific community that such things are nonsense? If national security
is at stake, as is so often proclaimed, then what is the origin of the threat—of
this earth or not? To answer the latter question, perhaps answers to some of the
548 to 701 unresolved cases might be sufficient to better inform our scientific
understanding of this phenomena.
2. The Soil Research of Ted Phillips
Ted Phillips (Chase and Chase, 1993), a research associate at the
Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), is a recognized world expert in physical
traces found at alleged UFO landing sites. According to the documentary
videotape titled UFOs Are Real, Phillips “personally investigated over 200-300
such sites in 59 countries involving over 1480 such landings (i.e., 150 sites in
the continental U.S. alone).” The videotape also showed that “at one such site
the soil at the alleged landing (1) was so dehydrated that it could not absorb
water, but only floated; however, soil a few feet away did absorb water; and (2)
the same tested soil that floated could not support seed germination and plant
life, but the other soil near-by did grow plants.” Additionally, Phillips (Chase
and Chase, 1993) stated that:
There were deep impressions in the ground indicating that an
object of great weight made the three or four impressions in a
triangular pattern. A larger circular pattern at the site
suggested an object with a diameter of 10-35 feet made the