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Interview with Stanton Friedman |
 This is the final in the series of a number of Book of THoTH interviews with the speakers at the Symposium Conference 2006 . This being with Stanton Friedman. Questions by THoTH and Oddthings.
BoT : Welcome to the interview Mr. Friedman.
BoT : You are probably the foremost investigator of the UFO phenomenon. What started down that path? , i.e. the first influences and why that got you interested?
SF : I read the book "The Report on UFOs" by USAF Captain Ed Ruppelt in 1958, read another 15 books some of which were trash, discovered Blue Book Special Report 14 at U. of Calif., Berkeley, library.Joined APRO and NICAP, Met Frank Edwards. He sent his book "Flying Saucers Serious Business"....
I asked him for suggestions. He noted KDKA Talk Show "Contact". They asked me to do the show after somebody cancelled. I did .. because of the show, I got my first lecture at a Book Review Club hosted by a woman technician at Westinghouse Astronuclear Lab where we worked, did more shows, more lectures. Heavily involved with local NICAP subcommittee, had answering service, lectures, great press. Got my first copy of Condon Report from Contact. Started doing professional groups and colleges. Great response. Bottom fell out of advanced nuclear and space business. Went full time.
BoT : When did you start your writing and research?
SF : Started research in 1958, writing in about 1967, Congressional Hearings in 1968 some local articles then Physics Today, Cycles, Aeronautics and Astronautics etc..more than 80 articles, 2 books, various videos.Also for years I have been doing a monthly column for the MUFON Journal
BoT : What makes you want to write and speak about this topic?
SF : Can’t think of a more important topic than alien visitations and government coverup. My background of 14 years as a nuclear physicist in industry working on highly classified,high tech, exciting, eventually cancelled programs for GE, Westinghouse, Aerojet, GM,TRW Systems makes me especially well qualified to deal with the advanced technology and security questions. I enjoy the response from my audiences, the big crowds, favorable letters. More than 700 lectures and I still draw large crowds. I enjoy being on the stage.
BoT : Do you find your writing/research easy or not?
SF : They are both difficult and time consuming and often quite expensive, such as tracking down Roswell witnesses back in the 1978-90 time frame. My phone bill was often hundreds of dollars per month in those pre-internet days.For example it took me a long day to track down Sappho Henderson, wife of Roswell pilot Pappy Henderson. At least the producers of Unsolved Mysteries paid that phone bill.
BoT : What’s the easiest thing about your writing or research?
SF : Since I am a poor typist, being able to use a computer instead of a typewriter makes life a lot easier.
BoT : What’s the hardest?
SF : Getting started and finding time and having to waste valuable time correcting the false arguments of the nasty noisy negativists.
BoT : Could you tell us briefly the main concepts behind your views on UFO’s?
SF : Concepts? Basically my approach is to collect review, evaluate and find more evidence. Often I have to put ideas in my gray basket.. not enough data to decide one way or another. I try to seek verification and validation of claims and not to take anything for granted. Once I am satisfied, I will speak out and not be be an apologist ufologist or closet ufologist. We can learn a lot from history of false claims being made about what is supposedly impossible by people with many degrees, but not specific knowledge in the area they arrogantly claim expertise, despite their actual ignorance.
BoT : Who are your favourite researchers/writers?
SF : I try to avoid TOP TEN lists. I have very high regard for the work of Dr. Bruce Maccabee, John Schuessler, for Budd Hopkins, Rob Swiatek, Tim Good.
BoT : The Book of THoTH is about bringing a greater resource of wisdom for those who want to explore further, what would be your message to those who are just beginning in their quest?
SF : Be very careful about believing anything on the internet. Look for sources for strong opinions to make sure the authors have done their homework. When in doubt check out credentials. Collect a lot of data before reaching a conclusion.
BoT : There are many skeptics of UFOs. What would you say to them?
SF : The polls show most people do accept UFO reality and thegreater the education the more likely to do so. I am a sceptic. My first point would be have you done your homework? If not why are you entitled to a puportedly professional opinion? At the beginning of my more than 700 lectures I refer to 5 large scale scientific studies and ask after showing a slide and discussing each one, how many have read this?. Typically fewer than 2% have read any. Maybe that is why I have had only 11 hecklers, two of which were drunk.
BoT : Where do you see yourself in, say, 5 years time, and what will you have achieved?
SF : Probably in a nursing home as I will be 77. I will hopefully write a couple more books. Hopefully I will have stimulated a great many people to think about flying saucers and the Cosmic Watergate, to report their sightings, to support efforts to obtain more data, to not accept conclusions from anybody without doing more homework. I hope some will start to think of themselves as Earthlings and to recognize that Earth isn’t the center of the universe and we are not the crown of Creation and that governments can and will lie.. as have ancient academics and fossilized physicists.
BoT : Have you any advice for people wanting to follow in your footsteps?
SF : Read a lot, check out things before accepting them, never say something you can’t back up, don’t let the noisy negativists get away with false claims. Don’t read your lectures to your audiences.
BoT : What are the best resources that people can use to learn more about your areas of interest/research?
SF : Read my books and papers and articles as noted on my website at www.stantonfriedman.com. For example my book TOP SECRET/MAJIC has a 10 page Bibliography including debunker litarature. Review the Proceedings of the annual MUFON Symposia. Check things in Jerry Clark’s fine UFO encyclopedias.
BoT : How’d you come to be involved with the New Frontiers Symposium?
SF : Paul Kimball, who has spent a lot of time on documentaries in which I appear such as "Stanton T. Friedman IS Real", and "Do You Believe in MAJIC?" invited me to present a paper "Flying Saucers and Physics". It probabbly didn’t hurt that Fredericton, New Brunswick, where I live, is only a 4 hour drive from Halifax.
BoT : What’s your talk at the symposium going to be about?
SF : My illustrated lecture "Flying Saucers and Physics" will review the silly arguments often made that flying saucers can’t be real because they would violate the laws of physics.. one can’t get here from there, one can’t stand high acceleration, moving at high speed in the atmosphere is impossible without burning up or making sonic booms, etc ad nauseum. I will of course review similar past "it is impossible claims.. especially by astronomers.. that also turned out to be totally wrong. I will , for example show pictures of Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion sysems, fission rockets, etc and also discuss fusion rockets which can provide 10 million times as much energy per emitted particle as in a dumb old chemical rocket. I won’t be using equations and will talk in terms everybody can understand.
BoT : Are there any projects that you’re currently working on?
SF : I am eagerly waiting publication of several books to which I have contributed such as Dr. (Colonel) Jesse Marcel’s "Roswell: It Really Happened", Frank Feschino Jrs. "Shoot Them Down"; Kathy Marden and my "Captured: An Insider’s Look at the Betty and Barney Hill Story." Kathy is Betty’s niece. Also I am working on chapters for a book "Flying Saucers and Science" and do a monthly column for the MUFON Journal.I would like to do a documentary "Star Travel? YES" for television.
BoT : Any final message for the members of The Book of THoTH and the rest of the world?
SF : Don’t forget that we are all Earthlings, that because aliens are coming here, we can be sure that at least one civilization has passed through the difficult stage of too much technology and not enough sociology and has learned to live at peace with their neighbors. If they hadn’t, they, would have been destroyed. So be optimistic. We may be as ignorant about the outside world as the gorillas in a nature preserve, but we can learn. Don’t be seduced by the false arguments of the Silly Effort To Investigate cultists.
BoT : Thank you for the interview Stan. I really appreciate your time, and I wish you all the best at the symposium. I look forward to checking back in with you and finding out how it went.
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