And The 'Prime Directive'
An Overview Of Wendy Connors' Third Disc Chronicling Our UFOlogical Aural History
By Alfred Lehmberg
Wendy Connors remains the contributory bar for her stunning compilation of aural Ufological history, to the tooth and a deciding turn! Superlatives for this remarkable woman are du jour and de rigueur!
"PROJECT MAGNET—Wilbert Brockhouse Smith and Canada's Search for Flying Saucers," is a sterling contribution to ufological history. It is a history rescued by Ms. Connors—as has already been pointed out in this ongoing series of overviews—from the complacently ignored and quickly disintegrating past. On this particular collection of vintage recordings, we explore the thinking of a hero of modern ufology which few have even heard of, and many have forgotten. The irony is that he may be key to an understanding of the... highly strange 'matters'... perceived and abounding all around us to this day.
W.B. Smith—Listen to him *cold* and he suggests just another dodgy bowl of straining ufological Fruit Loops. He even sounds a little loopy and tres affected. Be not misled.
Indeed, he fairly snapped, crackled, and popped an oddly unsettling litany of new sciences, encounters of seeming science fiction, alien philosophies... actual contact... and all in his eerily precise and pedantic monotone. Be advised. He's an acquired taste... but make the effort. Make. The. Effort.
He will, at first blush consequently (it might be reliably predicted), not ensure the confidence of the ardent skeptibunky or even the interested fence sitter. His thinking on UFOs seems to embrace the now much lampooned contactee, the "benevolent", "all-wise", and "all knowing" aliens not of this Earth, plus a blood relation to them on top of all that! That's an unsettling fare, right there.
There is even a tangential relationship to Billy Meier to really put the interested off... (via the philosophy of "Quadrature"). Tough to swallow for the abused, betrayed, and manipulated ufological masses... But start swallowing, folks, or choke. Verily.
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| Quadrature |
Consider—given how far Smith strays from the box of "accepted" thinking—how it might still be possible that we, one, understand the "doctrine of non-interference" (The Star Trek Prime Directive) meme as it is understood in the archetypes of popular culture presently, two, that we are familiar with the evolved ethics requiring a "prime directive's" application (and so predict that behavior from sentient "others," out "there"), and, three, that we gain the insight inherited with the realization that current 21st Century problems, presently endured, have their scurrilous roots in our failure to employ the very precepts of that same directive, even with regards to ourselves! W.B. Smith seems to have been ~first~ to reveal all those things to us, not Gene Roddenberry.
Fruit Loops? The cold listener, astonishingly enough, would be the only one to think so...
Dr. J. Allen Hynek (a ufologist's dean), in his very rational and thoughtful book, The UFO Experience—A Scientific Inquiry, made an interesting analogy which can be brought to bear on the credibility, personal character, and veracity of W.B. Smith... despite how far off the wall Smith seemed to ricochet! Hynek likened dependable people to calibrated scientific instruments in his very telling analogy and proved his logic, handily, in this tellingly thoughtful approach... which makes perfect sense on reflection.
"In science," he wrote, "It is standard practice to calibrate one's instruments. No astronomer, for instance, would accept measures of the velocities of distant galaxies obtained by the means of an un-calibrated spectrograph. However, if such an instrument had given consistently good results in the past, had frequently been tested and had not recently experienced any jarring shocks, the observer would usually accept its results without any further checking..."
Hynek continues, "...The parallel for us is, of course, obvious: if our UFO reporter has, by his past actions and performance, shown a high degree of reliability and responsibility and is known to be stable and not 'out of adjustment,' then we have no a priori reason to distrust his coherent report, particularly when it is given in concert with several other 'human instruments,' also of acceptable reliability."
...Turns out? W.B. Smith was just such an instrument, of just such a calibration, and of just such a reliability. He'd given consistently good results in the past, had been frequently 'tested', and seemed resistant enough to jarring shocks. Even if it is unwise to cease further checking, it may be that his testimony has enough verity for follow-on researchers to accept his observations... even if his conclusions are uncomfortable to the too tentative researcher. Smith was a GOOD instrument. His outré assertions, therefore, are not so easily discarded!
Sure, he might even have gone 'crazy'. But that's too quick a dodge back to the unsettled coward's complacent comfort zone, folks! Besides, there was no one who thought so then and no one (with any intellectual courage!) who thinks so now. It remains, sir and madam, that he had it on excellent authority that:
1. ...UFOs exist!
2. ...Their modus operandi is unknown, but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush, (Of 'MJ12' fame)!
3. ...The matter of UFOs was the most highly classified subject in the US—rating higher than the H-bomb!
4. ...The entire matter is considered by US authorities to be of tremendous significance (All Points from a memo to Smith's chief in November of 1950)!
Moreover, there are other quality persons... even if unwilling to embrace all the implications and assertions of Mr. Smith. These are persons abundantly convinced that there are films, notes, and hardware extant enough to justify a refined and concerted research into the areas that Smith testified he'd been made aware of... by aliens from space... not to put too fine a point on it. Listen to Connors' forward-thinking compilation, if you can root it out somewhere... to get an intimation of what Smith may have been trying to tell us... and...
...Did Wilburt Brockhouse Smith, in 1952 and well before Star Trek, introduce "The Prime Directive," that hyper-ethical 1st civilization non-interference code against meddling with an inferior or immature culture? ...And if he did... how did he gain that knowledge?
He said he got it from the aliens, "the boys topside." As far as we're concerned (the proof is extant on the recordings) the concept is his (or comes to us through him) and not Gene Roddenberry. Did Roddenberry ever hear Smith, or meet him? Nothing against Gene... with regard to art, the 'good' borrow, and the 'great' steal. [g]. ...But, he might owe Smith a credit, at least...
Before this essay gets too long I want to mention one other notable segment on the MP3 disc otherwise PACKED with notable segments! It is with regard to a Track #16, "The Great Debate: Major Donald E. Keyhoe of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, debating Col. William T. Coleman (former Chief Air Force publicist), USAF via CBC in 1975... on the existence of UFOs. One can easily predict who argued which side.
Keyhoe, as measured by the attending audience, 'lost' that debate. ...But did he?
Yes, Keyhoe 'loses' the *straight-up* debate, a skeptibunky would strut and crow, even as a sizable majority of the studio audience remains convinced that UFOs are real and extraterrestrial at the program's denouement...
...But reader! A "Win" or a "Loss" in a formal debate makes certain presumptions on the process of its exercise! The presumption is that both men are forthcoming, have no ulterior axes to grind and are articulating the truth as they know it. The presumption is that both men are brave and both are going where the data leads. The presumption is that they both follow the same efficacious rules and not use technique and verbal slight of hand to win an honorable contest. The presumption is that the participants are not lying, flatly, in so far as they know it, and are not otherwise selling their points or basing their premises on untruth and obfuscation! It's bona fide "debate"... or it's the United States Congress. There is no middle ground. This is the presumption!
Given what we now know decades into Keyhoe's future regarding the verity of Colonel Coleman's support points and his baldly convenient and institution-serving assessment of them, can those assumptions be made about Major Keyhoe and his opponent, presently? In other words, who really won that debate, truth be known, and how much skeptibunky strutting and crowing are truly justified? Precious little this observer suspects.
Listen to the debate yourself contained in Connors' cunning compilation, and with forty-some-odd years of 20/20 hindsight see if you can determine who was being the most logical and forthcoming, and who employed logical fallacy and duplicity—lied (to cut to the chase) to make their points. Come to your own conclusion.
Also on Connors' MP3 disc are companion tracks in support of the concepts suggested to the rest of us by W. B. Smith. Included are his son James on a recent interview via "Strange Days, Indeed" out of Toronto. RAdm. Herbert B. Knowles discusses the examination, by Smith, of a piece of supposed alien hardware. Robert Beck provides testimony on an ongoing "Project Magnet" (the Canadian saucer hunting effort) long thought canceled. Robert Groves discusses the strange theories of "Quadrature," the new science revealed by Smith in a serious interview by Earl J. Neff. Lastly, Dr. J. Allen Hynek talks openly during his interview with a first officer of Canadian Pacific Airlines who describes his encounter with a UFO!
All the tracks have a tendency to raise neck hair. These were smart and serious people... and THEY thought there was something to it.
All the tracks have a tendency to raise neck hair. These were smart and serious people... and THEY thought there was something to it.
Six hours, plus, of very compelling discussion and testimony await the listener on Connors' stunning compilation. She does not disappoint. I've listened to a few of the Smith tracks more than a few times and drawn something new away, every time. Fascinating stuff? Revealing stuff! Convincing stuff? Inspiring stuff! An effort even inspiring song! [g].
This disk has not been found at a downloading site but here is link providing discussion on WB Smith:
and talking about the "boys topside," Smith himself:
Read on!
