The brilliant Eric Ouellet, at his blog [parasociology.blogspot.com] touts his concept, the “Parapsychological Hypothesis.” (Anomalist provided the link.)
I suggest you read his material rather than let me paraphrase or interpret it, because Dr. Ouellet writes this:
"I am also supportive of the ETH and sophisticated ETH approaches in that I acknowledge the existence of numerous cases where the phenomenon has a degree of objective reality that cannot be simply dismissed out of hand. I agree that in a number of occasions, UFO observations can lead someone to think that objects appear controlled by some form of intelligence. The real question is whose intelligence?"
A view I disagree with, somewhat: the idea that “the [UFO] phenomenon has a degree of objective reality.”
Fortunately, Dr. Ouellet provides this caveat:
" ... the psychological conditions of the witnesses will shape their perception (like any of our perceptions about everything else, for that matter."
The caveat allows for my view that, in many cases (most?) UFOs are the product of hallucinatory perception or false perception, and the idea that UFOs maneuver in ways that seem intelligent is a real problem for me.
Perceiving intelligence is not a talent that humans excel at.
Here are some sites that explain why not:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~majumder/vispercep/chap4notes.pdf
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/psych-intel/art5.html
A quote from this site (above) states my view:
“We tend to perceive what we expect to perceive.”
(I think Dr, Ouellet’s views and/or hypothesis agree with that quote.)
A site that presents a philosophical approach to perception:
http://www.the-philosopher.co.uk/mind&mat.htm
If there is an “objective reality” to UFO observations, it has yet to be proven. And seeing intelligence in a thing moving in the sky is fraught with all kinds of cautions.
And observation of anything is iffy, although I assume that persons provide rather accurate accounts of what they think they’ve seen.
But with all the constraints of mental observation – neurological glitches, psychological malfeasances, and biologic anomalies, common aliments, often temporary, sometimes permanent but not known by the observer/witness and often (usually) overlooked by UFO investigators – one has to be extremely cautious about what is concluded.
Dr. Ouellet seems ready to approve, outright, an objective reality, or worse, a paranormal reality for UFOs.
This seems wayward to me, but his views are not to be dismissed readily. He has a long record of cogitation about the UFO phenomenon, the paranormal, and the human thought processes via the brain.
And as I wrote above, he’s brilliant.
RR
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